All I See Is Black And White
by KitKat8
Summary: COMPLETE Six years ago, Sanosuke left Japan after being accused of a crime he didn't commit about a week before his marriage to Megumi. Now he's back, yet he soon finds that his home is no longer as clear as it once was. It is now black and white.
1. Prologue

Prologue  
  


The sun rays shone straight through the open window of the clinic, casting their golden light over a woman's sleeping face. It was still early, about eight o'clock in the morning, and already people outside were bustling busily about to complete their daily tasks. The lady doctor, however, was still in bed. 

Megumi frowned slightly at the bright shimmer that reflected off her long dark eyelashes and she turned to her side to curl up to her fiancé and hide her face in his chest. But she curled up to nothing. 

Instantly, Megumi's eyes shot open in surprise and she bolted upright in her futon, her gaze scanning over the entire room for her love, only to find that the room was empty; not a soul in sight except for the weary-eyed twenty-three year old woman that stared back at her through the mirror.

She had forgotten again.

That is what Megumi hated most about mornings. The night always seemed to take away a person's memory for a while, but it never lasted long enough. Time would eventually catch up with her and bring her memories heaping back in giant handfuls that she couldn't digest all at once. 

Silent, she brought her knees up to her chest, resting her head atop them as she coiled herself up into a tight ball, her own little barrier that never seemed to protect her from her horrid nightmares that were not actually nightmares at all. She did it none the less, every morning for every time she forgot and remembered again. 

How long had it been since he had so suddenly disappeared? Three months? Four? Five? Megumi no longer counted. It only brought closer the day that she would bear the tiny child she beheld in her stomach. 

The growing swell of her abdomen seemingly worked against her, a constant reminder of her loss. What made things worse was the fact that it was not only her loss; it was the child's as well. Her baby would be denied what every single child in the world took so much advantage of: having a father. She had fought with herself numerous times on practically every occasion if she should even keep her descendant, knowing fully well that she wouldn't be able to fill the aspects of both parents and that the child would grow up being a bastard. She lost her nerve every time she contemplated taking the herbs she had secretly stored in the back room and at long last, when she was too tired to fight it anymore, she had drained every last grain into the kitchen sink. 

Megumi wasn't a fighter, but she was strong, strong enough to realize that her child was to be a blessing and not so much a memento of all the "what if's" that she no longer had the possibility of having come true.

The months that passed were still not enough to give her a peaceful wake in the dawning of day. They did not give her the warmth she longed for at night, and they did not give her the steady feeling in the bottom of her heart that could only be produced by happiness. Mornings were the worst. They meant the start of a new day, maybe not a better one, but a day none the less. She no longer cried, but she would always remember. 

Megumi tightened her fists on the base of her futon, the silver band on the ring finger of her left hand pressing deep into her flesh, as if pinching her back into reality. Confused at the slight sting, she turned her face to stare at the culprit, and her mouth contorted into a small circular shape as she caught sight of the familiar glint of the tiny diamond in the middle of her engagement ring. 

The light pouring into the room caught on the shimmer of silver and portrayed Megumi's reflection in its powerful gleam. Her eyes looked so bland, so utterly cold that Megumi had difficulty realizing it was her. But as she sat there staring off into her reflection for what could have been hours, it became more apparent to Megumi that an aspect in her image was missing, a part of her was not there. She was all alone.

She bit at her bottom lip, felt it quiver beneath her teeth and she swallowed. Strange and foreign rivers gushed from the corners of her eyes, forgotten tears, and she immediately buried her face in her knees again, disgusted with looking at her sorrow.

"Sanosuke..." Megumi whispered as she slipped off her engagement ring, clutching it tightly in the palm of her left hand, "Where are you...?" 

With a crack, the beautiful pinks and greens of the clouds separated as lightning tore through the hemisphere, crashing down on Earth with a whip of its long tail. Raindrops splattered above on the bamboo roof of her clinic, creating a raucous pitter-patter sound that matched the rhythm of her heart. 

Slowly, Megumi's grip on the silver engagement ring leisurely loosened and it tumbled from her hands, rolled onto the tatami mat and slid underneath her hardwood dresser. But she paid no attention to the missing ring, already too subdued and frightened of the undoubted loneliness that came with today that she fell back down onto the futon and covered herself with a thin blanket that was no substitute for Sanosuke's loving embrace.  
  
  
  


A/N: Sorry, I forgot to write up a disclaimer. I do not own RK, never have, never will. Okay, that takes care of that business! I know the prologue's kinda short but don't worry, things start picking up after this. Leave a review if you want more! 


	2. The Second Time Around

Chapter 1:

"The Second Time Around"  
  
  
  


The wind combed through the lengthy brown tresses of his hair, blowing it into his eyes and he angrily shook his head to brush them away. Tokyo seemed to have been put on a striking pause since he left. The trees were still standing tall, the roads were still as dusty as ever, and the grass was still filled with dry weeds that no one had ever bothered to discard. The city looked as if he had never left the place at all. It was still the same disheveled vicinity he had left behind so long ago, but it was, without a doubt: home. 

Home. It was a word that had changed meanings dozens upon dozens of times during the past six years, but they had all lead straight back here. Tokyo was where he had made himself into the man he is today. He was able to leave his past behind him on the streets and create a family out of those that he cared for and cared for him. Tokyo was where he had finally been able to find himself, only to later get lost in someone else. 

His evergreen cloak clung to his body as the wind continued to ravel about him as if to push him back to wherever he had come from, but he trudged on. Sanosuke could only hope that the dojo was still open and that the assistant master, the brat, and the retired Battousai the Manslayer remained residents. 

The wind soon died down as he turned down the familiar road leading to the Kamiya dojo and his steady steps made soft crunching sounds beneath him as his shoes found loose gravel. The dojo was still there, its paint slightly chipping and several unrecognizable cracks in its door had become more present over the years, pure signs of the home's age. 

Cautiously, Sanosuke took his right hand from where it rested in his pocket and raised it over the wooden door to knock, but it was suddenly opened before he could even tap it with his finger. 

A young boy stood there, his head only reaching up to Sanosuke's thigh. He had fiery red hair which was pulled back into a high ponytail, but multiple wispy bangs flew stubbornly every which way, sticking to the temples of his forehead from the heavy exercise he had to endure that morning. His hands clasped a small wooden bokken and the boy struggled to catch his breath as he cocked his head to the side to stare at the tall man in curiosity.

"So, the little Missy got some more students then, huh?" Sanosuke said, looking down at the boy as he, in return, strained his neck up to return the new guest's gaze, "Is Kenshin Himura around?"

The boy stared at Sanosuke for a few moments with a blank look in his sapphire eyes. He stared so long, Sanosuke thought maybe he hadn't heard him and he cleared his throat to ask again. 

"Does Kenshin still live here?" Sanosuke asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he did so at the thought of his best friend living anywhere else but where Sano suspected he would stay forever, "How about Kaoru Kamiya? She here or did she move out or something?" 

Instantly, the boy spun around and ran towards the house, leaving Sanosuke confused, surprised, and cold standing in the doorway.

"Daddy! There's a strange man at the door asking for you!" the boy called, trailing his wooden sword behind him like a tail, "Daddy! Where are you?"

"I'm right here, Kenji," Kenshin replied, stepping out from the backyard, a white dishrag thrown over his shoulder as he went over to kneel by his son, "I was doing the dishes when I heard you yelling, that I was. Now, what's the matter?" 

Kenji pointed toward the door, his finger outstretched to Sanosuke's lean form, still in the exact same position he had left him in, and Kenshin followed his son's direction and smiled up at their unexpected guest. After gently putting his son's hand back down and telling him that it was not polite to point, Kenshin said his greetings.

"Hello," Kenshin said as he approached the stranger, "I'm Kenshin Himura, that I am. Is there something you wanted to talk with me about?"

He was aged, fine lines that hadn't been there before were now becoming a more definite feature on his face. Tiny wrinkles formed at the corners of his eyes when he smiled his usual rurouni smile, the one that he did when he wanted people to think he was nothing but a mere innocent bystander or that he was just plain stupid. Sanosuke smiled down at his friend, realizing that even with time, Kenshin Himura was still exactly the same.

"I know it was a while back since I last saw you, but I wasn't expecting to run into your kid," Sanosuke answered as he placed his hand behind his head and looked from father to son, "He looks just like you, Kenshin. He's even got the Missy's eyes. She is his mom, right?"

"Sanosuke? Is that you?" Kenshin asked, tilting his head from side to side to examine the man in front of him. Checking his facial features and the familiar smirk on his face and finally finding everything fall right into the perfect description of his long lost best friend, his smile only widened. "I would have to say that I wasn't expecting to run into you either, that I wasn't. I barely recognized you with your hair down and that cloak. I believe you've already met my son, Kenji, and yes, Kaoru is his mother. She's inside right now cooking breakfast. I'm sure she'll be very surprised and happy to see you, that she will. Come on in and you can tell us about where you've been all this time over breakfast."

"That might take a long time to tell you about all the places I've been to," Sanosuke said as he obediently followed the red head and his identical son inside the dojo, his hands returning to their usual position in his pockets and he pushed aside the shoji, revealing the intoxicating aroma of soup and rice, "The Missy didn't learn to cook well by any chance, did she? I'm not really up for getting poisoned on my first day back, you know."

"You haven't changed a bit, I see," Kaoru chimed in, interrupting Sanosuke's insult to her old horrible cooking strategies and she placed her hands on her hips. Having heard every word the men had spoken since Sanosuke had first arrived at the dojo, Kaoru was in no need for a re-introduction. "You may have changed your hair, grown a little tuft on your upper lip and gotten new clothes, but you're still the same unappreciative Sanosuke Sagara I always knew."

"Well then, I appreciate you having me for breakfast then," Sanosuke replied, making a big emphasis on the word 'appreciate' and he flashed his old friend a smile, "Nice seeing you again, Kaoru."

Her stern face soon changed to a light-hearted smile as the corners of her mouth turned up and the edges of her eyes creased at his changed attitude. Still smiling, she looked to her husband, to her son, to Sanosuke, and in realizing how cold it was outside, she ushered them all into the room and sat them all down at the table as she brought out the soup and rice. Surprisingly, the rice was not burnt and the soup did not taste like seasoned water. When everyone was settled and comfortable, Kaoru took her seat next to Kenshin and started up on her meal.

"So, where have you been all this time, Sanosuke?" Kaoru asked between mouthfuls of steaming white rice and she looked over the rim of her bowl to glance at him, "You really had us all worried when you left Tokyo like that without even a word. We only got information of what happened when the police chief stopped by and told us about your wanted status with the police. Were you just hiding from them the entire time?" 

After finishing his breakfast, Kenji politely excused himself from the table and grabbed his bokken before heading out the door to practice more of his daily regimen. With the young boy out of ear shot, Sanosuke was free to talk about whatever he wanted and he would be able to explain his story freely, without constraining from any of his usual foul language. Sanosuke swallowed back his food first and met both Kenshin and Kaoru's eyes before he spoke.

"I couldn't tell you guys about the whole rumor about the government official. As soon as I found out about it, I just ran. Better if I got out of the situation without involving all of you anyway," Sanosuke said, Kenji's grunts and the sound of his sword swings filling the otherwise silent room, "I got the news that I was wanted for killing the magistrate when I was with a friend of mine. He told me all about it and the next thing I knew, about a dozen cops were chasing me down. I didn't exactly have the spare time to run by the dojo and explain it all with the police riding on my ass. I had no choice but to leave without saying anything to anybody."

"Well, one would think that you would at least have the decency to write a letter or something," Kaoru chided, the stern look returning to her face as she peered at him from narrowed ocean blue eyes, "if not a letter to us, then at least to your fiancé." 

Sanosuke automatically stood up from his seat to defend himself, his anger rising at Kaoru's lack of understanding his reason. She had no right to tell him what he should or should not have done, especially when it was all for what he thought was best for them, for... her.

"Hey! I didn't come back here to get lectured by you! You think I'd just write her a letter and have the police trace it back to me and have her get put in jail for keeping my whereabouts a secret?!" Sanosuke snapped, his hands clenching into fists, "I'm not gonna risk her taking the fall for something I got framed for! You're talking about decency, I'm talking about protecting her from that damn screwed up government! If I'd communicated with her in any way, she'd have been the one they'd go after with me gone! I don't wanna get shut up in a cell for something I didn't even do, let alone put it all on her! Kaoru, you don't half of what I've been through!"

Kaoru stood up from her seat as well, wild fire dancing in her eyes, practically burning out the eternal blue that made up her pupils and she pointed an accusing finger straight at his face.

"You left her, you big jerk!" Kaoru shouted, her point directing right at the center of his dark brown eyes, "Yes, it's true that I have no idea what you've been through over all these years but I know pretty damn well what you put her through! I know because I was there to see her break down and cry, I was there when she demanded to know where you where, when she said she just couldn't take it anymore! You left her three weeks before your wedding without so much as a farewell! And you dare come back now saying you were looking out for her well-being?! Well, I've got news for you, Sanosuke! If you wanted to keep her from getting hurt, you shouldn't have stomped all over her heart, leaving her to think God knows what! You have some nerve coming back here six years later, expecting her to fall back into your arms just like that! For all she knew, you were dead! For all she knew, you left without saying good-bye to her because you never wanted to marry her in the first place! Megumi waited for you for so long and not even a single word came from you! Not a letter, not a visit, nothing! You made her cry until she had no more tears left! I hope you're damn proud of yourself! You... you... selfish bastard!" 

As soon as she said the last part of her speech, Kaoru's voice cracked and Sanosuke first realized the endless streams of tears that cascaded down her cheeks. Although her whole body shook with anger, her finger still remained raised accusingly at him, but it had somehow lost its threat as it quivered with the rest of her body. 

Kenshin automatically stood up from where he had been sitting, observing their argument, and his concern for his wife turned him away from his friend. Kenshin cursed himself for not stopping the fight earlier and he took Kaoru into his arms, cradling her into his lap as if she were a tiny child and he smoothed his hand over her hair to try and calm her shaking nerves. Heaving a deep sigh, Kenshin continued with his soothing motions to his wife, keeping his head lowered as he spoke to Sanosuke.

"I'm sorry, Sano... She's just upset, that she is. Kaoru has been pretty tired lately and..." Kenshin paused as he looked up from Kaoru's trembling body to face his friend, but Sanosuke was nowhere to be found, "Sano? Where did he go off to this time?"

"Forget it, Kenshin. He left again without saying good-bye," Kaoru whispered, a slight wobble in her voice as her tears slowly ceased and she pressed her ear to Kenshin's chest, "It's what he's good at. Just let him go. I said what needed to be said and it's taking its toll on him. He needed to hear the truth, Kenshin... He has no idea what he put Megumi through and now he's just...!"

"That may be true, Kaoru. Sano may not know how his departure affected Miss Megumi, but you also don't know how it affected him, that you don't," Kenshin interrupted, looking down at his wife's tear-stained face and he gently wiped off the remaining watermarks with his thumb, "You both have very good points in your argument, but I'm afraid I'm leaning more towards Sano's reasoning, that I am. I bet he was in the same horrific state she was, if not, worse. I'm sure he wanted to let Miss Megumi know that he was alright and that he would be coming back someday, but you also have to look at it from his point of view, that you do. He felt he was protecting her by not associating with her, which was why it was necessary for him to keep his whereabouts a secret. He was only trying to keep Miss Megumi from getting involved with his problems, that he was."

"I guess you're right, Kenshin, you always are. But... that still doesn't change the fact that I hope he left Tokyo again," Kaoru admitted, her hands placed loosely in her lap and she kept her face averted from her husband's. Kenshin was a bit taken aback with her abrupt statement and he tilted his head to the side to get a better look at her and he gave her a quizzical expression.

"Oro? Don't you think that's a bit harsh?" Kenshin asked, not quite understanding her want of Sanosuke's absence, "I know you two just had a pretty bad argument and you are just defending Miss Megumi, but don't you think wanting to have him leave again is a bit drastic? You should try and look past the argument and try and remember what a good person he is, that you should."

"That's not why I hope he left, Kenshin," Kaoru said as she stared into the deep violet pools of her husband's eyes, the eyes that held her all in place, "I know what a good person he is, I never forgot. It's just... I just don't want him to get hurt when he finds out what's happened since he left."

"Oh..." Kenshin replied, "You're talking about Tetsu, aren't you?"

"Mm hm," Kaoru agreed with a nod, "He'll be so devastated when he finds out. You saw how he thought Megumi had just been waiting for him this whole time! It's going to hurt him so much when he finds out... I hope he just left, Kenshin, I hope he left. That way he could just never find out and his heart will be spared."  
  


~  
  


Sanosuke was angry. No, more than angry, he was furious. He frustratingly kicked a rock that stood in his path and it clunked against a nearby cherry blossom tree, making it shake from the hard impact and causing hundreds of soft pink petals to flutter to the floor assorted on the ground like sprinkles on a chocolate cake. It was bad enough that Kaoru had yelled at him, but what added to Sanosuke's fury, was knowing that she was right. 

He did leave Megumi six years ago and it was true that he hadn't given her so much as a telegraph to let her know he was still breathing air into his lungs; he wasn't too proud about that. But he had done it all so he could protect her. That was the only thing he had been aiming for, but somehow it seemed his decision had only made matters worse. He had wanted to talk with her, or at least write, God knows he did, but he didn't want to tell her he was coming back one day only to find her locked up in bars for getting caught communicating with a wanted criminal like him when the day finally rolled around. Wanted for something he didn't even do, for something that Sanosuke had been wrongly accused of. 

He didn't kill the magistrate, Hideki Kajima, he didn't kill anybody, but somehow word had gotten around that he had, and in a very strange way, Sanosuke could see pretty good reason why he would be the top suspect.

He had been angry that night too. Six years ago, half drunk and half controlled by his rage, he had walked down the opposite direction of the road he usually used to get to the clinic and he had stumbled on to the magistrate's house at about eleven o'clock at night. 

He had heard about how the government assigned Hideki Kajima to try and take one of his friends, Ryo, into jail for stealing a priceless golden cup from a police officer's home and selling it at the black market for some money. It was wrong of his friend to steal, that was true, even if it was a petty theft, but his intentions for the money were all well and good. 

Ryo's wife had been sick for over four months since giving birth to Ryo's child and she was unable to breast feed the baby because of her illness. Ryo needed the money to pay for the milk that the child's mother couldn't provide and if Ryo were to be thrown into jail, that would leave his wife and child to fend for themselves. Without Ryo to buy food and care for his family, they would die within a few days time.

It wasn't fair and it wasn't right and Sanosuke was going to make sure that the judge knew that, even if he had to pound it into his head that leaving Ryo's family to starve wasn't the way the government should punish him. 

He had stormed into the court room like a mad man, his eyes possessing the look of Zanza as they glowered at the man in charge of the fate of one innocent family's lives and he had grabbed him roughly by the shirt. Sanosuke didn't remember what exactly he said to the man, but he knew that he had gotten through to him by the way the man pleaded for his life. Sanosuke had no intention on killing the magistrate, but he did give him a warning, a threat that would have sent Saito running with his tail between his legs. And when he finished, Sano had retreated from the court house, leaving the judge scared stiff in a tiny corner of the room, quickly signing papers to cancel any movements to take Ryo Shiranami behind bars.

Sanosuke had left, completely satisfied, not having so much as cut an inch of hair off the magistrate's head, but still fulfilling his duty of doing what was right. He had headed back to the clinic, where he always went after being out with his friends for the night and he found Megumi already in the futon, the blanket curled around her, but her eyes were wide open. She had been waiting for him, as Sano had expected she would, and he had immediately crawled into the bed with her, holding her close and inhaling the sweet scent of her hair. That was the last time he had heard her say she loved him and it was the last time he had held her in his arms.

The next morning, he had given her a swift kiss on her cheek before heading out to see Ryo at his house and tell him the good news. What awaited him on the streets were hushed whispers and accusing points from practically everyone he passed, all things that Sanosuke had simply brushed off as something that didn't need very much attention. When he reached Ryo's house, his friend was already awake and pacing about in front of his apartment with a pensive look on his face. 

At seeing Sanosuke, he ran over to him and told him all about the police searching for him for murdering the magistrate the night before. Ryo had hurriedly brought him inside to talk privately, but before Sanosuke could even explain his side of the story, the door had been kicked in and about ten police had drawn their guns at their heads. They both had little time to react and that was what caused Ryo's downfall. 

One idiot police officer took aim and fired, hitting Ryo in the leg and disabling him from getting away. Ryo had fallen to the floor in pain, but he had discreetly drawn his own weapon from its hidden holster in his boot while the police officers were so distracted in confronting Sanosuke who was struggling to get to his wounded friend. Before Sano could even reason his innocense, Ryo had shot down all ten officers to the ground, not killing them, but injuring them enough to cancel their job in capturing his good friend, leaving Sanosuke in disbelief in the doorway.

"Get out of here, Sano," Ryo had said, still holding on to his injured leg as he pointed his gun towards the now open doorway, "They're wounded now and unable to fight, but there'll be more. You have no choice... you need to leave Tokyo for now and come back when it's safe."

"But I gotta get you to a doctor! Come on, the fox'll be able to fix you up and then we can talk about this," Sanosuke had insisted, but Ryo had only shaken his head, "Ryo, I can't leave Tokyo! I've got people here that need me! I can't leave! Not now, not ever! It'll take years for this whole thing to blow over!"

"At the most, ten. Sano, you have to go," Ryo had said again, trying his best to stand on his one good leg, "You won't be much use to those people that need you if you're dead, now get out of here! I'll be fine, don't worry about me... Right now, the only thing you should be worrying about is yourself! You can't stay here any longer or they'll find you! Go! Go now!"

Sanosuke hadn't thought, he just ran. He didn't even have any idea where he was going, just as long as it was in the opposite direction of danger and before he knew it, there were about three dozen officers after him, some on foot and some on horse. It took a great deal of strategy and effort, but Sanosuke had been able to lose them about a mile or two down into the forest and by that time, it was already dusk and the sun was just barely touching the horizon. 

He had stopped to catch his breath and take one last look at his home, the place where everything important to him dwelled, and the one place that he would not be able to set his foot on again for many years to come.

"I'm sorry, Megumi..." Sanosuke had whispered one last time before taking off again into the far off lands of his undecided destination.

Sanosuke shook his head to clear away his memories of the last day he spent in Tokyo and he looked up from his gaze on the ground to see the sign of the local doctor's clinic. Unconsciously, his feet had led him straight here, like a fish going in for a worm on a hook. But, according to Kaoru, he was the only worm in this whole situation. Sanosuke shook away that thought too. Right now, his main concern was to see the lady doctor that had haunted his every thought for the past six years. He took a deep breath before raising his hand over his head and prepared himself to knock on the door.  
  


~  
  


"Mina, go take a break now. It's already close to lunch time!" Megumi called to her assistant from her room in the clinic as she continued sweeping the dust from under her bed and into the silver dust pan, "It's going to be a slow day today so you might as well take a two hour break."

"Two hours for lunch? Well, aren't you being awfully generous today?" Mina said as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the doorframe of Megumi's room, "If anyone here needs a break, I'm thinking it's you. Like you said, it's gonna be a slow day. I'm sure you'll have some time to spend before Suzuki gets back. I doubt anyone's gonna show up here, you're probably scaring them all off with your little room sanitizing."

"The room is just dusty that's all. It could stand to use some cleaning up," Megumi replied to her friend with a smile and both women turned to the sound of someone knocking at the door, "Hm... I think we spoke too soon. Could you get that please?"

"Sure," Mina said, turning on her heel to exit the room, but she turned back to see Megumi straining with the weight of her dresser as she tried to push it across the tatami mat to the middle of the room, "You need some help moving that?"

"No, I got it, Mina," Megumi huffed as she paused to wipe the sweat from her brow when the dresser was moved into the center of her room, "Just answer the door, will you?"

"Got it," Mina answered and she strode over to the tall oak door and unlocked the three bolts before opening the door all the way to examine their first patient of the day. 

Sanosuke stood there, his arm resting against the doorframe with his other hand jammed into his pants pocket. He looked at the girl with curiosity, having expecting Megumi to open the door, and he felt utterly ridiculous for striking his usual seductive pose. He stared for a moment, wondering where the foxy woman was, but he snapped out of his silence when the young woman gave him a confused look.

"Do you work here?" he asked her, hoping with all his might that the foxy doctor was still that: a doctor. He watched as the girl smiled and opened the door wider. Thinking that she was letting him inside, Sanosuke took a step forward, but instead, the girl stepped out and onto the porch with him.

"Yes, I do. I was just leaving for a lunch break," Mina replied as she headed out the door and she pointed back to the clinic's entrance, "But Miss Megumi is still inside if you need anything."  
  


~  
  


Megumi took a deep breath as she leaned against the heavy dresser she had just shoved away from the wall to reveal the mat underneath that was in desperate need of dusting. The area that had been covered by the dresser was shrouded with dust bunnies and lint and Megumi stuck out her tongue in disgust at the sight. She absolutely hated untidiness. Frantically, she began sweeping up the old residue on the floor. 

But somewhere in the middle of all the gray build-up, she spotted something small and shiny. With a tiny frown, Megumi bent down to examine the foreign object and she pushed her hair behind her ears so that she could blow away the dust that surrounded it. When most of the dust and lint was finally off, Megumi picked it up and turned it over in her hand, brushing off the excess residue. And there in all its glory, stood her old engagement ring that Sanosuke had so long ago proposed to her with. 

She took in a sharp breath at the sight, having completely forgotten all about the ring that had symbolized his promise to share his life with her and she turned it over in her hand as if she couldn't believe it was real. She had been looking all over for it years ago, but she was never able to find it. It was what she had cherished most, it was... 

"Megumi!" Mina called from outside, "I'm going off to lunch now! There's someone at the door for you!" 

Mina's call startled Megumi out of her loving remembrances and she vigorously wiped away the oncoming tears. 'I'm being ridiculous,' she thought as she tightened her grip around the ring, 'why would I want to cry over this again? It's been so long...'

"I'll be right there!" Megumi hollered back after a moment's pause and she heard the front door close, indicating that Mina had just left the clinic. 

Megumi quickly stalked over to her dresser again, and opening up the bottom drawer, she pushed aside all her clothes. At the bottom of all her folded kimonos, was a tiny box about the size of her sandal, decorated with a few aged stones and etched flowers. In her rush to put the ring away and answer the door, Megumi opened the box up too quickly and dust went flying through the air and into her unsuspecting face. Megumi sneezed a little bit and her eyes began to water, but she placed the ring inside the box, setting it down right next to her collection of mementoes of Sanosuke Sagara. 

Inside was one of his many red bandanas, torn and battered, but it had never lost its value as a treasure. There was an old worn-out fishbone that stunk to high heaven and now, the silver engagement ring. 

Another thing was hidden at the bottom, wrapped in long black silk, loosely fitted so it could conceal the object's shape and Megumi involuntarily shuddered at the power it possessed. She could just imagine it, long and sleek, black and hard, she could practically feel the handle in her palm, the tiny trigger against her index finger, and she could almost smell the gunpowder. She had never used it and Megumi hoped she would never have to. 

Megumi shut the box closed and quickly pushed the bottom drawer back into place, also pushing away her thoughts to the far back wall of her mind. She had already taken up too much of the patient's time with her silly emotions and she wasn't about to worry about them anymore. 

'That's it, Megumi,' she thought to herself as she made her way out to the door where the patient still stood, 'no more thinking about Sanosuke and that's that!'

Determined to keep her promise, Megumi turned and faced the stranger with her most professional grin, her once waist long black hair, now cut to her shoulders, swinging behind her like a grapevine.

"Megumi?" Sanosuke asked, more in disbelief than anything else as he watched the gorgeous woman open the screen door to come face to face with him. He blinked several times to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He needed reassurance that the woman in front of him was real flesh and blood and not an angel.

She looked like she hadn't aged a bit since he had last seen her and he was glad to see the familiar fire glowing in her cinnamon colored eyes, the eyes he was so easily lost in. Was it possible that she had grown even more beautiful over the years?

"Yes, that's me," Megumi replied with a bright smile, "Can I help you with something?" "Can you help me? Yeah, I imagine you can," Sanosuke said, his smile growing wider by the second, "You see, I traveled a long way over here to see you.... Fox."

Megumi frowned at the name, not quite catching what he meant by it. No one had called her such an embarrassing name since... 

Sudden sirens went off in her brain and the room suddenly grew so small as she felt it being to spin around her. She stumbled backwards, reaching out for the nearby chair for support as she tilted her head down and then lifted it back up to face the man in her doorway. Shock had overtaken her and it almost hurt to think. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out, only a soft whimper, and her hand flew to cover the open gap of her lips.

A look of worry crossed over Sanosuke's face as he watched Megumi back away and stumble for the second time. With her hand covering her mouth, he hoped she wasn't about to burst into tears. He wouldn't be able to handle that and he'd probably end up bawling his eyes out too. 

Instead, Megumi closed her eyes as her entire body went limp and she practically tumbled to the floor. Sanosuke barely had time to catch her, but he had her in his arms before she hit the ground. Enchanted by the woman he now held, he looked down into her sleeping face, the same one he had said good-bye to that last morning he was in Tokyo six years ago and he smiled. 

Swooping her up in his arms, he carried her unconscious body over to one of the patient bedrooms and gently placed her on one of the futons. Carefully so he wouldn't wake her, he pulled a thin cover over her before going into the kitchen to bring out a large metal bowl filled with cold water and a damp washcloth. 

Kneeling down by the bed's edge, Sanosuke patted the small towel over her delicate forehead and over her face, slowly remembering the natural blush of her cheeks, the smoothness of her skin, and the soft outline of her lips. And waiting, he placed the washcloth gently onto her temple and watched her as she slept.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


A/N: Good? Bad? Leave a review and let me know please! Come on, don't make me beg!


	3. Maintaining New Identity

Chapter 2:

"Maintaining New Identity"  
  
  


Megumi had no idea how long she was unconscious or how she got to the patient bed, but she did know that the person she stared up at when she awoke was very well, a six year aged Sanosuke Sagara. Still recovering from her earlier faint, she squinted her eyes as she watched him get up and head over to the kitchen for some more water, completely unaware that she had come out of her pleasant slumber until he returned.

"Oh, you're up," he said as he set the bowl down on the little footstool on the floor beside him and dipped the white cloth into the new water before placing it on her forehead again, "How're you feeling? You feel nauseous at all? Thirsty?" 

Megumi shook her head, her eyes studying him as he continued patting the towel against her cheeks. Sensing her watching him, Sano stopped and turned to look at her, the familiar golden flecks in her eyes sparkling in her pupils as he met her gaze. Megumi had her eyebrows creased, as if concentrating on something very hard, her mouth no longer wearing the friendly smile he saw earlier as it was now pulled into a tight line. She swallowed.

"Am I dead?" she asked him and slowly he shook his head at her.

"No," he replied, not even blinking as he continued to stare at her.

"Am I dreaming?" she asked and again, he shook his head.

"No."

"Are you dead?" Megumi asked, tilting her head to the side to look at him better, searching for some kind of sign that he really was a living breathing human being. Sanosuke chuckled at that and he shook his head for the third time.

"Nope," he said with a smile, "I'm just as alive as you are." 

Just to prove it, Sanosuke pinched his arm and Megumi watched to make sure he was telling the truth. Somehow, she still wasn't convinced. Unconsciously, she reached up with her hand as slowly as she could, stretching it out to touch his face, but she abruptly drew back as she realized what she was doing. 

The thought of having him disappear if she touched him scared her more than thinking he was a ghost sent to her from Heaven. So instead of touching his skin and risking the beautiful dream to end, she reached higher and settled on pulling on a strand of brown hair that fell into his eyes. Sure enough, it was real.

"You changed your hair," she stated blandly, running her finger over the single strand as she stared at it in wonder, "You cut it."

"You did too. The last time I saw you...." Sanosuke trailed off at his last sentence as she gave him a hurt look and he cleared his throat. That was definitely not the way to go. He tried again. "Megumi, I didn't exactly come here to talk about different styles our hair took on."

"Then why did you come here?" Megumi asked him, her hand moving back down to her side, letting go of her hold on his bangs. 

Sanosuke gave her a perplexed look as if he couldn't believe she had just asked him that. And he couldn't. He thought it was pretty obvious why he came back to Tokyo, to the clinic, to her, yet somehow he found that Megumi was pretty serious about her question. She really didn't know why he came back.

"Well, I thought that much was obvious," Sanosuke replied with a scratch of his head, "I came back for you, of course. I came back to finish off what we started. Don't you remember this?" Sano raised his left hand, displaying the identical twin silver ring to her own and it flashed brightly against the few rays of sunlight that shone through the window. Megumi watched it shimmer as he wiggled his fingers in front of her and she bit her lip, remembering how she had found hers earlier that very day. "You do remember this, don't you?"

"I remember," Megumi said as she watched him try and take the ring off his finger and she gave him a quizzical look, "What are you doing?"

"Trying to show you that I can't get it off. I've worn it so long, it kinda got stuck to me, I guess," Sanosuke shrugged, "Not that I'd try and take it off anyway. It grew on me, just like you did. Six whole years is a long time, you know."

"Yes, I couldn't agree with you more," Megumi added and she sat up from the bed to look at him. This was it. She had to tell him, she had to tell him now, and if he was ready to hear it or not, she just had to let him know. "Six years is a long time. Long enough for things to change and for big things to happen. You can't just put the world on hold and start it up again whenever you feel like it, you just can't do that."

"What do you mean?" Sanosuke asked, his hand dropping dully to his side as he heard again the familiar words he had just listened to from Kaoru. He hated repetition.

"Sanosuke, this is like you're coming back from the dead. I thought you were gone from this life, I never thought you'd be... here.. again. And all so suddenly, you appear out of nowhere and just think everything would fall right back into place. Yes, six years is a very long time indeed, and so many things have happened since then," Megumi continued, trying her best to explain herself.

"Like what?" Sanosuke asked, standing up from the edge of the bed and he towered over her like a rooster to its chick. Megumi opened her mouth to answer, but she was cut off when the door flew open and someone ran inside.

"Mommy!" a small boy cried as he ran over to where Sanosuke and Megumi stood and the lady doctor automatically got up from her seat to kneel onto the floor with her arms outstretched. 

The boy ran over to her as if it were but second nature to him and launched himself into her open arms, talking excitedly about his day and whatever other happy chatter was cut off from Sanosuke's brain as he felt his heart tighten as he watched the whole shocking ordeal.

"Hey you!" Megumi practically purred, kissing her son on his forehead before pulling him out of her embrace so she could place her hands on his tiny shoulders, "Did you behave yourself at your Uncle Yahiko's today?"

"Yes, Mom," he replied with a curt nod of his head, his dark hair bobbing up and down as he did so, "Uncle Yahiko said I was getting a lot better at sword practice and everything! He said when I'm a few years older he can give me a better sword than that wooden stick!" 

Sano followed the direction that the boy had just pointed and turned to the doorway to find a small wooden bokken on the floor that the boy must have dropped on his way in. Sanosuke would have smiled at the thought of Yahiko teaching him swordsmanship if he hadn't been so caught up with the fact that Megumi had a child.

"Oh really? That's great, Suzuki!" Megumi exclaimed and she lifted her son up from the ground and settled him onto her hip as she turned to Sanosuke, "Suzuki, I want you to meet one of Mommy's close friends. His name is Mr. Sagara. Can you say hello?"

"Hiya Mister!" Suzuki exclaimed as he stared up at Sanosuke with sparkling cinnamon eyes, completely identical to his mother's and Sanosuke smiled at him.

"Hey," Sanosuke said to him with a raise of his head. It was the only thing he could think of appropriate enough to say to Megumi's son. 

Before coming to Tokyo, Sanosuke had thought up everything he was going to say to Megumi over and over again in his mind, but his mind had all of a sudden gone completely blank. Sano was about to say more when Megumi turned to her son with a stern look.

"Suzuki! That's not how you properly introduce yourself to someone," Megumi said as she shifted her weight to the other foot to support her son on her hip, "Now, why don't you try that again, but do it right this time."

"But Mom!" Suzuki protested, but he stopped his whining by the sideways glance he received from his mother and he reluctantly gave up, "Okay, okay..." Suzuki turned in Sanosuke's direction and put out his hand for him to shake, the comparison of their hands in size fairly different. "Hello, Mr. Sagara. My name is Suzuki. It's nice to meet you." The boy's voice was almost like monotone, like he was programmed to say it or actually, trained, but he said it like he meant it and Sano smiled and shook his tiny little hand.

"Nice to meet you too, Suzuki," Sanosuke answered and the boy returned the warm smile, and Megumi nodded her head in approval, "So, you take good care of your mom?"

"Yeah! I squash all the spiders in the house!" Suzuki announced with pride, making both adults burst out laughing and Suzuki frowned, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, Sweetheart," Megumi replied as she calmed down and wiped away a happy tear from the corner of her eye, "Why don't you go outside and play now, alright?"

"Okay! Can Kenji come over and play too? He's out in front waiting for me," Suzuki stated and he pointed out the window to the mini-Kenshin sitting on the steps, "See! He's right there!"

"Yes, I see him. Okay, go have fun, but stay where I can see you," Megumi said as she set the boy down on the ground and he practically bounced off the walls with his energy.

"I will!" he called over his shoulder and the screen door slammed behind him as he ran out to the front yard and helped Kenji up from his seat on the stairs. His voice was heard from outside as Sanosuke and Megumi heard him talking with Kenji about what they should play. Diligently, they watched the boys run around the yard from the nearby window, laughing and jumping about for all their worth.

"He's your son, huh?" Sanosuke asked, jamming his hands into his pockets again and he nodded toward Suzuki, who was now swinging his bokken around at Kenji, pure happiness evident on his youthful face. Megumi didn't even turn to him when she answered, still watching her son play in the front yard as she smiled and nodded.

"Uh huh. He's my little angel," Megumi said proudly, folding her arms over her chest, "a little stubborn angel sometimes, but still my baby." 

Sanosuke nodded, an awkward feeling he wasn't used to finding its way into the room and into his soul and he leaned against the window for support. He had never expected Megumi would have a child, needless to say an older child. Suzuki looked to be about five or so years old and Sanosuke had only left her six years ago, meaning that Megumi had quickly moved on after he was gone. His mouth suddenly went dry as he searched for something appropriate to say other than accusing her of being unfaithful.

"He has your eyes," Sanosuke said finally, remembering the similarity between the color and shape of mother and son's, "They're the same color as yours."

"I think that's all he got from me," she replied pleasantly, hugging herself with her arms, even though the temperature in the clinic was already warm for the afternoon. She continued looking out the window, "Everything else he got from his father. I swear, he gets more like him everyday."

Sanosuke said nothing, only nodded his head to show he was listening and Megumi hugged herself tighter. She had no idea it would be this hard. She needed time to prepare, but time was something she didn't have. It had to be now.

"It's kind of funny how much he admires him even though for all five years and ten months of his life, he never even saw his face..." Megumi said solemnly and Sanosuke looked away from the boys outside to stare at her.

"He never met his father before?" Sanosuke asked, his arm still leaning against the brim of the window and he squinted his eyes towards her to focus on her face despite the sun rays that parried his vision.

"Not until recently," Megumi replied, her bright eyes showing a hint of something Sano didn't really comprehend and he raised his eyebrows at her in confusion. If he knew Megumi at all, this was one of those 'read-between-the-lines-dealies that Sanosuke wasn't too good at. Megumi sighed at his slow thinking and continued talking. 

"He asks me lots of things about his father. Mostly little random things like, 'Did Daddy ever go here?' or 'Did Daddy like this?' He never asks me any of the important stuff about his past or things like that. He usually asks Sir Ken, or Yahiko, or sometimes Kaoru, about the more personal things. I guess he thinks that asking me will hurt my feelings. He's always been compassionate like that..." Megumi took a quick glance in Sanosuke's direction and finding his attention was solely on her, she continued, "He likes to dress like his father too. He'll pick things out at the market that resemble his father's clothes and I actually think that's what he's aiming for. It drives me nuts sometimes at how much Suzuki reminds me of him."

"So then, is his father around? I think I'd like to shake the hand of the SOB that fathered that kid," Sanosuke said, turning his body to fully face her, "Whoever the guy is, he's really lucky."

"I'm glad you think so," Megumi agreed with a nod and she licked her lips, trying to get the moisture back into her mouth that now felt like it was stuffed with cotton, "He actually... showed up on my doorstep today and surprised me."

'If he doesn't get this, he's really as chicken-headed as I first thought,' Megumi thought to herself and she watched his expression, waiting to see his reaction.

"Wow, looks like you've been having a lot of unexpected guests today then, huh?" Sano murmured dumbly, making Megumi sweatdrop at his obliviousness, "So who is he anyway? Do I know him?" 

Megumi sighed and she frustratingly rubbed her throbbing temples.

"Yes, you know him. Quite well in fact. You know him like no one else does," Megumi stated, as bluntly as she could in hopes that he would catch her hint, but Sanosuke only tilted his head to the side, still confused. 

Losing her patience, Megumi grabbed his hand but paused only a second later, realizing that she had just touched him, the first physical contact she had had with him since the day he left and she looked down at her hand holding his. Pushing back the old shock waves that racked her entire body, Megumi shook herself before she looked him straight in the eye, knowing that the only way he would understand would be to tell him straight out.

"Sanosuke, you are Suzuki's father." 

Sanosuke stood completely still, his breathing coming to a halt and he felt his heart stop beating. For a few brief seconds, he imagined he was dead, floating off in some dream land between earth and the clouds, and until his breath slowly came back, did the five worded phrase finally sink in. 

To make matters even more intense, Megumi repeated herself. But she did not have to say it again, he had heard her loud and clear the first time and her words continued to echo throughout his ears, jumbling up all his thoughts and knowledge of what he thought his life was made up of, only to find that he knew very little. His whole reflection of just who he found himself to be barely covered even half of what he really amounted to. 

Sanosuke had always contemplated whether he was Sanosuke Sagara, or Zanza, Fighter for hire, and somehow another name had mingled its way into his list of identities. That name being the most drastic: Suzuki's father.

Sanosuke stumbled backwards, falling down into the chair behind him with a loud thud, but it was doubtful of whether he even noticed. In fact, Megumi figured that if she had put a doctor syringe on the seat and Sanosuke sat upon it, he would not have even winced. However, Sanosuke's pensive thoughts were so suddenly interrupted by Suzuki and Kenji at the door again, Kenji limping on his left leg and his arm around Suzuki's neck as he helped him walk. Sanosuke looked up from where he had placed his face in his hands and stared at the boy that was not only Megumi's son, but also his. 

He had no idea why he hadn't seen it before: the dark spikes of his hair, the strong bridge of his nose, the pointed edge of his chin. The boy looked just like he did when he was his age. It was like looking into a mirror of the past.

"Oh my, what happened?" Megumi asked, going directly into protective-mom mode as she slipped away from her old lover and her doctor instincts took over. She kneeled over by Kenji and Suzuki, concern wavering in her eyes. "Are you two okay?"

"I'm fine, but Kenji was running and he slipped and fell. He scraped his knee pretty bad," Suzuki answered and he followed his mother over to the table while Kenji took a seat in a nearby chair. 

A few moments later, Megumi returned with some cleaning alcohol, cotton swabs, and some bandages and she knelt down to inspect Kenji's wound, wiping away the blood with a warm towel.

"Okay, Kenji, it doesn't look too bad, but we're gonna have to put some alcohol on it so it won't get infected, okay? Now this might hurt a little," Megumi warned and she inched towards his knee with the alcohol-doused cotton. The cotton barely brushed against his wound when Kenji yelped in pain.

"Owwy! That hurts, Auntie Megumi!" Kenji cried, the corners of his eyes brimming with tears and Suzuki put a supportive arm around his friend and asked him if he was going to cry, "No! I'm not gonna cry! Big boys don't cry!" 

Even if his words were strong, his voice didn't exactly go along with them. Kenji's eyes still squirmed with tears, but Suzuki thought it best to pretend he didn't see them and he quickly changed the subject to spare his friend humiliation.

"Hey Mom... what's for dinner?" Suzuki asked, not aware that he sounded exactly like his father when he said this and Sanosuke finally got up from his chair to watch them in the doorway and he smiled, seeing his son in an entirely different light rather than just 'Megumi's kid.'

"Well, let's see... How about some catfish?" Megumi suggested as she continued to blow on the still stinging wound on Kenji's knee that he claimed hurt more than the actual scrape itself.

"Alright!" Suzuki shouted, punching his fist in the air and he smiled at his mother, "When did you go to the market and buy catfish?"

"I didn't," Megumi replied calmly as she doused another cotton ball with alcohol and prepared to use it on Kenji's injury while Suzuki looked at her with a 'Huh?!' expression, "I didn't go to the market and buy catfish. That's great that you want some though, the fishing pole is out back. Ohohohoho!" Familiar fox ears popped up from the sides of her head and everyone in the room sweatdropped.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Suzuki shouted in protest as everyone laughed, "You tricked me! That's not fair at all!"

Kenji giggled gleefully at his friend's discomfort and while he was distracted with teasing Suzuki, Megumi quickly cleaned off the rest of his cut with the alcohol without Kenji even noticing. After Suzuki left the room, grumbling under his breath while he headed over to get the fishing pole, Kenji turned to Megumi. 

"Are you gonna use that stingy stuff again, Auntie Megumi?"

"I already did while you were laughing," she said with a smile and Kenji looked surprised, then suddenly puffed out his chest in pride of his 'bravery.' The entire chest-puffing charade did not go unnoticed and Megumi smiled. "You, Kenji, are getting to be a very brave young man."

The boy practically beamed and Sanosuke covered his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. At that moment, Suzuki came back into the room, a fishing pole over his shoulder and the box of bait in his hands. The package came complete with a tiny scowl on his face. 

"I'm gonna go get the fish now then..." Suzuki grumbled with a roll of his eyes and his mom flashed him an innocent smile, "You coming too, Kenji? What about you, Mr. Sagara?"

"You three go have fun fishing and I'll stay here and clean up," Megumi enjoined and she stood up from her kneeling position, "Go on now! The fish are probably waiting for you to draw them in and eat them!"

"Riiiiiight, Mom," Suzuki said with a grin and he waved, "Bye! Come on, guys, let's go. I bet you those fish'll get tired of waitin' for us!"

"I'll be there in a sec!" Sanosuke called after the two small boys and they nodded and ran off into the direction of the river. With Kenji and Suzuki out of the room, Sanosuke turned to Megumi and smiled. "Thank you."

"For what?" Megumi asked curiously, thinking of what she could have possibly done for him that she could not recall.

"For giving me my son," Sanosuke earnestly replied and he turned around to leave, giving her a wave before he walked out the door, "We'll be right back!" 

Megumi nodded at his disappearing figure, memorizing the sign of 'Wicked' still engraved on the back of his gi, and she turned over to the chair he had been sitting in and picked up the green cloak he had been wearing over it earlier. Sighing, she brought it out with her to the bucket in the backyard with the rest of the laundry. 

'Now why does this seem so awfully familiar?' Megumi thought with a smile as she leisurely placed the dirty old cloak in the laundry tub and began scrubbing out the dirt and grime of Sanosuke's journey around the world and back.  
  


~  
  


"So how do you know my mom, Mr. Sagara?" Suzuki asked from Sanosuke's left, Kenji following him on the right as he strode over to the river holding on to Suzuki's fishing pole. Sano paused for a minute, thinking of how he should answer his question, and suddenly wishing he had a fishbone in his mouth so he didn't feel so awkward.

"Uh... Me and your mom were close friends a while back before you were born," Sanosuke stated after a moment, playing it safe as he was careful not to mention his real relationship status with the foxy doctor, "I'm also friends with your Uncle Yahiko, Auntie Kaoru, and Uncle Kenshin too."

"Wow, so that means you must've known my dad then, huh?" Suzuki asked. Sanosuke couldn't help but take note of how Suzuki's eyes sparkled at the idea of his father. 

"Yeah, did you know Suzuki's dad, Mr. Sagara?" Kenji asked as well, both pairs of anxious little eyes staring up at him as if he was some kind of mythological hero.

"Yeah, I knew him. Pretty well actually," Sanosuke replied, putting his hands back into his pockets again like he usually did, "He's a really cool guy, your dad."

"Hey, you little runt," a voice came from the left. 

Disturbed by the rude name and interruption, Sanosuke turned in the direction of the voice to find a tall glowering man a few feet away. He hadn't even noticed him until then and he watched with curious eyes as the man directed his gaze towards Suzuki, one eye almost all white and the other practically pitch black. "What trouble are you getting yourself into now?"

"I told you not to call me that!" Suzuki growled at the man, baring his teeth like a dog ready to bite, "And I'm not getting into trouble! I'm going out fishing to get dinner for my mom!"

"Whatever you say, you little runt," the man said again, a horrible sneer on his face and Suzuki gripped the bokken behind his back, but Sanosuke's steady hand on his shoulder stopped him from bringing it forward. "What? Go ahead, let the little runt hit me! If he can hit anything with that little stick..."

Sanosuke didn't know why, but the man stirred up the blood in his veins. Not just because of the way he dared to call his son 'a little runt,' but there was something else that gave Sanosuke the chills when he saw him. Besides the strange color of his eyes, Sanosuke was positive he had seen something like that before, one white and one nearly ebony, but his memory was boggled by the anger he felt for the complete stranger before him. The man looked strangely familiar, but he couldn't exactly put his finger on where he'd seen him before.

"Alright, I have no idea who the hell you think you are, but you gotta know when to shut up. Suzuki asked you not to call him that plenty of times before 'cause he's a patient guy, but..." Sanosuke paused, cracking his knuckles, "I'm not."

The man critically looked over Sanosuke from head to toe, scrutinizing the way his clothes fit loosely over his body and the smudges of dirt over his face. It was obvious that he could stand little to no chance against him if fists began flying so to avoid confrontation, the man grunted a reply. He then turned on his heel to walk away, rolling his different colored eyes as if Sanosuke was merely a bothersome fly that could easily be ignored.

"Patience is a virtue, whoever you are, but obviously a person like you wouldn't know that," he said with a huff and he began walking away from three very angry males that would've just loved to bang his head into the nearest brick wall. "Oh, Suzuki," he continued without even so much as turning around, "the next time you go looking for some friends, make sure they have some manners." And with that, the man left, his back completely turned to them, blocking their angry glares aiming straight for his heart. 

When he was out of hearing distance, Suzuki and Kenji pulled their necks back and thrust forward, sticking their tongues out at the rude speck in the distance with a big, "Phhhbbbttt!" sound.

"I really hate that guy," Kenji muttered as they finally reached the river side and took a seat on the dry side of the bank, "He's mean."

"I know, Tetsu's such a jerk," Suzuki agreed as he flung the fishing line into the water and sprung some back, "But try telling that to my mom..." 

At the mention of Megumi, Sanosuke looked up from where he had lain himself down on the grass with his hands behind his head and he straightened himself to look at Suzuki.

"What does that big turd have to do with your mom?" Sanosuke asked, worry evident on his face and both Kenji and Suzuki turned to him with bewildered looks, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You didn't know? I thought that was why you came here in the first place," Suzuki said with furrowed eyebrows, "Didn't you come to see Mommy and Tetsu's wedding?" 

"WHAT?! That jerk-off is gonna marry your mom?!" Sanosuke asked frantically, his eyes darting back and forth in panic, "Wha... why? Why would she do that?"

"I dunno. She doesn't see what a big loser he is, I guess," Suzuki said with a shrug of his shoulders, "Tetsu's always nice to me when Mommy's around, but when she's not in the room, he turns really mean. He treats Mommy really nice though, but I still think he's a big poopy-head."

"Yeah, he can be mean to my daddy too!" Kenji added as he hooked a worm onto the sharp end of his fishing line, "and he can be rude to my mommy. He says her cooking is really bad and he calls me a brat. I don't like him at all. His eyes kinda scare me. Auntie Megumi should just marry someone else 'cause... 'cause even my mommy and daddy say Tetsu's not right for her."

"And you guys agree with them?" Sanosuke asked, leaning back against the tree and after both young boys nodded their heads vigorously, Sanosuke mustered up a tiny smile, "Yeah, me too... So what were we talking about before that big turd interrupted us?"

"We were talking about Suzuki's dad," Kenji replied and Suzuki's face automatically brightened at the mention of his father, his cinnamon brown eyes twinkling with golden cast stars.

"Yeah! Hey, I have a question," Suzuki said, turning his attention away from the river for a second so he could look at Sanosuke leaning against the tree, "it's about my daddy..."

"Shoot," Sano replied with his eyes closed, getting comfortable in his seat as he placed his hands behind his head as a pillow.

"Is it true my dad mastered the Futae-No-Kiwami in only one week when it took that one big monk guy a whole month?!" Suzuki asked excitedly and Kenji jumped to his side with an enthusiastic smile as well, eager anticipation practically dripping from his voice.

"Yeah! Is it true, Mr. Sagara?!" Kenji backed up, making the older man open one eye to look from one anxious face to the other and he nodded his head.

"Yup, it's true," Sanosuke said and both five year old's turned and looked at each other at the same time with amazed expressions.

"WOW!" they both exclaimed in disbelief, "That's so cool!"

Sanosuke's ego practically skyrocketed to the heavens.  
  
  
  
  
  


A/N: The plot thickens... leave a review if you wanna know more. This was kind of a comic relief chapter before the more serious stuff. There'll still be a few more funny parts, but not a lot. This story kinda shows the different types of writing I can do besides comedy. Pretty soon I'm gonna have to change the rating of this story to R so if you don't see it in PG-13 anymore, you know where to find it. 


	4. Like Fire To Ice

Chapter 3:

"Like Fire To Ice"  
  
  
  
  
  


The hours flew by like minutes as the three bonded over their attempts at catching dinner and soon it had become dark. As they ventured back towards the clinic, they caught sight of Tetsu on his way out, heading over to his own home a mile or two away. 

Sanosuke met the man's eyes as they passed by each other on the lawn and held it as if turning away would imply surrender and neither man wanted to imply anything of that sort. The exchange of glowering ended when Megumi called to her son from the porch and both new and old fiancé turned away and continued in opposite directions. If the evening had not been so grimly quiet, Sanosuke would not have heard what Tetsu whispered to him.

"Have fun with your son today, Sagara?" Tetsu practically spat under his breath. 

Sanosuke continued walking towards where Kenji, Suzuki, and Megumi now stood at the door, talking excitedly about the day's catch. Sanosuke's hands tightened his fists in his pockets, resisting the temptation to strangle him. Tetsu was a complete stranger but that didn't matter at all to Sanosuke; the guy was still ranking pretty high on his most-hated-persons list. 

How Tetsu knew that Suzuki was his son, Sanosuke had no idea. There was no way Megumi had told Tetsu about their old engagement, that was for sure. She had too much pride for that and she was too smart to reveal their intimate past to her potential future. She had obviously seen their disgruntled meeting coming and had attempted to avert the situation from danger as best she could. But it hadn't seemed to fool Tetsu at all because deep down, Sanosuke could tell that Tetsu knew a whole lot more than he let on. 

After dropping off Suzuki at the clinic and saying good-night to mother and son, Sanosuke and Kenji continued down the road to the Kamiya dojo with the bucket of catfish in hand. They had let Suzuki take the biggest fish and he had let them take the two smaller ones.

With any luck, Sanosuke figured that bringing dinner for everyone at the dojo would be his way to apologize to Kaoru for the argument that morning. And besides that, he had some major kissing up to do if he wanted a free place to stay for the night. The clinic was simply out of the question. 

All the nights he had stayed up waiting, waiting and wishing that he could come home and live the life he left behind was all gone to waste now. All that wishing amounted to nothing. It seemed that all those times he had been caught up with dreams of being with Megumi, she had been caught up with creating new dreams without him. 

Suzuki had kindly offered him one of the empty patient rooms to stay in for the night, but Sanosuke declined. It was not Suzuki's choice to invite him to stay or not, it was Megumi's, and Sano knew that having to sleep in the room next to hers would not only be awkward for them both but it would also be impeccably terrible for him. Knowing that the woman he loved was just beyond a few layers of lumber would be torture for any man. He doubted he would sleep at all or if he wanted to, for that matter. All he would do is dream of her.   
  


~   
  


"Kenji! Where on earth have you been?!" Kaoru practically screeched as she saw her son walk in through the dojo's entrance. After many long hours of worrying about his whereabouts, she had been on the brink of insanity, but her anger suddenly faltered as she realized that Sanosuke accompanied him. "Sano? You're still here? I thought you left sometime this afternoon."

"I left the dojo, not the city," Sanosuke replied and he held the bucket high above his head, "I hope you're in the mood for catfish." 

Kaoru smiled in return to the nice gesture, completely forgetting about her previous hostility towards her son as she picked up both the bucket and Kenji and took them inside.

"Come on in, Sanosuke," Kaoru called from inside once she noticed he hadn't followed like he usually did and he entered the room with an appreciative smile. She barely noticed as Kenji skipped over to where his father was and he watched Kenshin as he put the food on the stove to cook for dinner. 

Kaoru peered at Sanosuke as he continued to stand in the doorway, his hands jut deep in his pockets as if waiting for something and he turned to look at her to prove her previous theory.

"You can sit down now if you want," Kaoru offered, growing steadily curious about the new courteous Sanosuke that had entered her home and she turned to Kenshin for an explanation, but her husband was busy frying the catfish in the kitchen. Still as confused as ever, Kaoru turned back to him with new eyes and a different point of view. 

"You know, maybe you have changed from that unappreciative free-loader I used to know, Sanosuke. You seem to have learned a few manners while you were away for so long. Waiting for permission to come inside, waiting until I offered you a seat, bringing dinner to the host's house... Is this your way of apologizing for this morning?"

"That and because I kinda... need a place to stay..." Sanosuke admitted with a sheepish grin, his hand casually going back behind his head as it usually did when he was trying to act innocent and Kaoru sweat dropped, her smile drooping down to a glum expression.

"I should've known there was a catch..." she muttered and Sanosuke scratched his head while he let out a nervous laugh, "I'm guessing you found out why you can't stay at the clinic then, right?" At his nod, Kaoru sighed and she sunk down lower into the tatami mat beneath her.

"Sano... if you had arrived a little sooner then it wouldn't have turned out like this. Maybe if you had come back in July, before they were engaged, then maybe it would've worked," Kaoru murmured softly as she drummed her nails against the table top to bring some kind of sound in the room to lessen the awkward silence, "I don't know what Megumi sees in him. But I suppose that's her business."

"Suzuki doesn't like him," Sanosuke stated bluntly, interrupting Kaoru's rambling that she aimed to be a pep talk. Really, it was only making him feel worse. He would've been grateful for the encouragement if it had actually worked the way it was supposed to, but he knew her intentions were good. Still, it didn't change the fact that he didn't like hearing he was too late. "How long... have they been engaged?"

"About three months now," Kaoru replied as she took a sip of her tea, "it would've been four, but Megumi took a month to consider his proposal before she said yes. I don't know whether or not the delay in her decision had anything to do with you." Kaoru stole a glance at him from over her cup. "They met when she went back to Aizu two years ago after she found her brother. Apparently he had survived the fire and had been searching for her for a while. So, he sent for her to come to Aizu and see him for a little while and when she came back here, Tetsu came with her. They hadn't been in a relationship then, but Tetsu was always trying to develop one. I think one time, she just gave in and went to dinner with him so he'd leave her alone, but then they started seeing each other." Kaoru paused. 

"I've never seen them kiss."

"Never?" Sanosuke asked curiously and Kaoru nodded.

"Never. She doesn't really talk about Tetsu either and I don't ever want to, so we just... don't," Kaoru sighed as she finished off the last drop of tea in her cup, "Suzuki likes to talk about him when she's not around. He never told her about how Tetsu treats him when she's not there and I don't think he's planning on it. That son of yours is always looking out for her, you know. He always is. I don't think he realizes that it would be all for the best if he just let her know about the whole Tetsu thing."

"He doesn't want to hurt her," Sanosuke said, his chin resting in his hand as he contemplated the situation between Tetsu and Megumi, "he thinks she's happy and he doesn't wanna take that away from her."

"But she's not!" Kaoru protested with a slam of her fist, startling Sanosuke and even herself with her harsh rebuttal. She took a deep breath before continuing. "She's not happy with him, Sano. We all know she isn't. And you know it too, don't you...?"

"You know what too?" Yahiko asked as he entered the room where his friends sat and he settled down next to a pensive Sanosuke, "Um... did I come in at a bad time?"

"Actually..." Kaoru began but was cut off as Sano's head came up and he took a glance at the newcomer.

"Since when did you grow up?" Sanosuke asked curiously as he looked the tall teenager up and down, "Now we can't call you Little Yahiko anymore! What's the Missy been feeding you? Jolly Green Giants?" Yahiko laughed and shook his head.

"Nope, actually, I haven't had Ugly's cooking for a while now since Tsubame's is a whole lot better," Yahiko said, ignoring the angry glare Kaoru shot him from her opposite side of the table, "I just stopped by 'cause I heard you came back today and I had to see it for myself. I came by earlier, but Kenshin said you left again."

"Yeah, I went to go see the Fox," Sanosuke said, feeling very awkward for having such a civilized conversation with the small brat next to him that had so suddenly turned into a man, "Today's just been full of surprises... I ran into mini-Kenshin this morning, I found out Megumi's engaged to someone else, I got to meet my son, and I was able to catch tonight's dinner. It's been one hell of a 'Welcome home' party..."

Yahiko nodded silently, not exactly sure of how to address the situation of Megumi's new engagement. He knew that if he had been in Sanosuke's shoes and his Tsubame had been pledged to another, he wouldn't be able to handle it. Yahiko had no idea how Sanosuke was able to just sit around, sip tea, talk with old friends, and not try to beat Tetsu to a pulp like he expected him to. The old Sano would be doing just that. 

No one said anything after that. 

The drumming of Kaoru's fingernails hitting the table and the sound of food frying in the background took up all the sounds of the night, quieting even the crickets outside. Although Sanosuke was completely silent and it seemed as though he had a good grip on the situation, he was screaming inside.  
  


~  
  


"And they lived happily ever after... The end."

Megumi sat comfortably on the edge of her son's futon, a small story book in her hands opened up to the last page. She closed it.

"Good night, Suzuki," Megumi whispered as she gently pressed her lips to his forehead and she lovingly traced her hand over his cheek and waited for him to close his eyes. But he didn't. Not for a long time. Concerned, Megumi gave him a worried expression. "What's wrong, Angel? Are you not sleepy yet?"

"Mom..." Suzuki began, his tiny hands twisting the white sheets around his chest as he looked down at the covers to avoid her questioning gaze, "Can I... can I ask you something? Like, anything?"

"Of course," Megumi said as she smoothed back a lock of brown hair that fell over his eyes, "you can ask me anything that's on your mind. Is there something bothering you?"

"Um... kind of..." Suzuki murmured, twisting the blanket tighter in his hands, "I was just thinking about Daddy... What's he like? Is he like Tetsu or Uncle Yahiko? Or Uncle Kenshin?"

Megumi sighed and smiling, she shook her head.

"Your father? No, he's not like Tetsu at all," Megumi said as she got more comfortable in her seat, "he is a very different breed of person then him. Tetsu is like... ice, sometimes really cold, but soothing. And your father... your father is more like fire. He can makes you feel really warm and comforted, but if you're not careful, you could get burnt. Does that make sense at all?"

"Not really," Suzuki replied as he pulled the covers up closer to his face, hiding his entire body from the neck down, "So Daddy was warm? Like a blanket?" Suzuki held up his as an example and Megumi smiled at his literal thinking.

"Not quite, honey, not that kind of warm," Megumi said as she set the blanket back down over his body to keep out the cold, "more like... a warmth in your heart. Not like the temperature, but actually inside. Right here." Megumi pointed at the right side of Suzuki's chest. "You see, you feel it right here in your heart. When you're near him, it's like all the cold in the world couldn't get to you. That's what your father is like. You might not understand it now, but I think that's what love feels like."

"Is Tetsu warm too, Mommy?" Suzuki asked curiously, "Can you feel him in your heart too?"

"Tetsu...? Ice isn't warm, Suzuki, it's always cold or it's not ice anymore," Megumi explained, speaking metaphorically so she wouldn't have to give her son a straight yes or no answer to his personal question.

"Do you miss being warm, Mommy?" Suzuki asked suddenly, becoming more daring with his questions, "Do you miss Daddy?"

"Um... Suzuki.... why are you asking me this all of a sudden?" Megumi asked as she hid her trembling hands in the folds of her nightgown, again avoiding the questions that scratched away at her mind and pushed past the threshold of what she was still trying to escape from for six long years. 

"I just... well..." Suzuki stuttered, stumbling over his words as he tried to word it all right and make sense of all the things running through his head, "Auntie Kaoru and Uncle Kenshin said that Tetsu wasn't the right 'one' for you. Kenji told me so. They said that you wouldn't be happy with him as your husband and as my new daddy. And Kenji thinks so too and Uncle Yahiko and even Mr. Sagara... I don't think you should marry him, Mommy."

Megumi was silent for a moment as she continued brushing back her son's hair as she thought over his words: 

'Auntie Kaoru and Uncle Kenshin said that Tetsu wasn't the right 'one' for you... And Kenji thinks so too and Uncle Yahiko and even Mr. Sagara... I don't think you should marry him, Mommy...' 

Megumi bit her lip as she thought the last sentence over again, a deep empty feeling in the pit of her stomach suddenly opening so wide she thought she would fall into it at any given second. Remembering that her son was still watching her, Megumi turned to face him, plastering a fake smile on her face as she looked down into his face, so unbelievably identical to his father's.

"You don't want Mommy to marry Tetsu?" she asked him, leaning over the bed's edge to look for the honestly in his eyes that he had inherited from her and she didn't even wait for him to answer before she spoke again, "Are you worried about getting a new daddy?" At Suzuki's enterprising nodding of his head, Megumi smiled. "And just who do you want me to marry then, Suzuki?"

"You should marry Mr. Sagara, Mommy," Suzuki said, his innocent loving smile coming over his face and dancing upon his lips, "he was really worried when he found out you and Tetsu are getting married. He got kind of upset. And he doesn't think Tetsu's the right one for you either. I think he likes you, Mommy." 

Without a word, Megumi got up from her seat on the edge of his bed, nodding her head at her son to show that she heard him and she wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to push away the chills that ran up her spine. 

'It all just has to be coincidence,' she reasoned, 'just all a big coincidence... He doesn't know what he's saying...' 

Turning back to him, Megumi gave her son one last weary smile before sliding the shoji door to his room behind her, hot tears springing to her eyes as she shut the door behind her.

She was only able to walk a few feet down the hall from his room before she couldn't stand it any longer and she stumbled over her feet. Gasping, her hand flew to her mouth to muffle the tiny whimper that raised from the back of her throat. Her breathing was heavy and shallow, almost hyperventilating, as she leaned her back against the nearby wall. Slowly, her legs gave way beneath her, no longer capable of keeping herself standing upright and she crumpled to the floor.

Curling into a tiny little ball, she tried to drown out her sobs by burying her face in her knees, but it did little to conceal them as they grew more intense, more pained. As Suzuki's words continued to circulate in her mind, fresh tears formed a puddle on the floor. 

Megumi didn't even try to hide the sounds of her cries anymore as the sadness became unbearable and they echoed through the dark hallway of the clinic. Her entire body was trembling uncontrollably on the floor, her hands gripping the tatami mat underneath her. 

Suzuki in his room, tossed and turned in his bed, wondering why his mommy was crying.  
  
  
  


  
  
  


A/N: Aww... Suzuki's playing mind games with her and he doesn't even know it... Well, the story gets a lot more interesting after this chapter, especially since Sano and Megumi are gonna have a little late night chat. Don't miss it! And don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think! 


	5. If You Had It Your Way

Chapter 4:

"If You Had It Your Way"

He needed to get out. He needed to get some fresh air. But most of all, he needed to blow off some steam. And what better way to do that than to feel the adrenaline rush of a fist fight. Sanosuke hadn't been in need of one of those for a long time, but even if he had been gone for six years, he still knew where to go to find one. 

The gambling house wasn't too far away from the dojo, maybe only about a few blocks and dark alleyways down. If he walked, he'd be able to clear up his thoughts and maybe kick around a miscellaneous object or two on the way there, imagining that jerk, Tetsu's, face was on it. But thinking about Tetsu led him to thinking about Megumi, his Megumi. Sanosuke shook his head as he realized he had no right to call her that anymore and he dejectedly kicked at a pebble in the road. 

Watching as it sailed into a nearby puddle, his thoughts drifted back to a night almost seven years ago, when he had been heading from his apartment to the gambling house when he caught sight of Megumi strolling toward the forest. Curiously, he had followed her. 

~

Megumi had been walking at a steady pace, so Sanosuke didn't have any amount of trouble catching up with her. He smoothly walked into step beside her, his hands thrust into his pockets yet again, with the usual fishbone dangling from his lips. She didn't seem to mind his company and they walked together in silence through the woods until Megumi took a turn down a path Sanosuke didn't know.

"Where are you going?" he asked her confusedly, watching as she turned off the usual walking path travelers went down and headed into a darker area of the forest. When she didn't answer, he, followed right behind without hesitation, not wanting her to go alone at night in such a dangerous-looking place. Again, he caught up with her easily.

Megumi took another turn Sanosuke wasn't familiar with and he followed her still, watching as she took out her red lipstick and dotted the soft wax against the tree trunks that she passed. He didn't ask questions, he didn't say a thing, only followed her like a lovesick puppy would to its master. 

After a few more markings, twists, and turns, Megumi finally stopped as she reached a clearing in the trees and she slowly turned around to face him. She smiled at him then, the moon's iridescent light cascading down her face, making it appear even brighter and adding to the natural glow of her eyes.

"Look over there," she said, pointing out past a few trees to a tiny body of water beyond a series of shrubs. 

Sanosuke had never seen it before in all his years of living in Tokyo and he was surprised to find such a secluded body of water that he had never before laid his eyes on throughout all the time he had walked through this forest. 

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Megumi asked as she pushed past the tiny shrubs in her way to get closer to the pond, "I found it not too long ago when I got lost heading back from a patient's house on a late errand. It was so dark that night that I couldn't really see where I was going. So I followed the only light source I saw and that happened to be the moon reflecting off this pond. I stayed right over there by that tree and fell asleep against it." Sanosuke glanced at the tall oak she had just indicated in wonder. "When I awoke in the morning, it was bright enough for me to recognize things and I made it back to the clinic safe and sound."

"Seems like a nice place to go to. Are you the only person that knows about this place?" he asked her, still gawking at the gorgeous scenery in front of him. Megumi silently shook her head at him, looking up at the moon as if it had just called to her.

"No, I'm not the only person that knows about it," Megumi replied and she turned to him with sparkling eyes, "you know about it too." 

~

Sanosuke stopped in his tracks, remembering that later that night they had their first kiss and after having some conversation with her, he had walked her back to the clinic. That was before they started their relationship, before he admitted his feelings for her and hers for him, and now, Sanosuke had the sudden urge to go there. He didn't know exactly why, but he wanted to trust that feeling he had deep inside him that exhorted him to turn around. 

And on impulse, he turned, heading in the opposite direction of the gambling house as he changed his destination to one of more importance. He forgot all about his need for a fight as he walked down the dirt path of the forest, the dry leaves beneath his feet creating a soft crunching sound with his steps. He found all the right places to turn by with the remaining traces of red wax along the tree trunks that had somehow stayed in place after all this time. 

Pushing at a few stray branches, Sanosuke found his destination and stood still at the clearing, looking over the small pond and the glittering moonlight shining in its reflection in the water. He smiled to himself, admiring the way the moon could look just as beautiful even in the rippling water. But something else in the water's reflection caught his eye, a small figure to his left, and he leaned forward, turning his head around the tree's thick trunk to get a better look.

There Megumi sat, leaning against the same tree he stood by, completely unaware of his presence only mere meters away from her.

Sanosuke held his breath as he caught sight of her. He had always loved the way moonlight hit her face, added shimmer to her eyes. Slowly, his gaze drifted over her, gently flowing down her body like a caress and he ached to reach out and touch her. She seemed so far from him, so utterly unreachable, even though they were only a few inches apart. 

"Hey..." he said quietly, sliding past the tree trunk that blocked him from her view and she looked up at him in surprise, "Can I sit here?" 

Megumi nodded a few seconds after her initial shock had surpassed and he took a seat beside her with a gentle sigh, leaning back against the tree as well. 

For a moment, time stopped, but the spell was broken when they both spoke.

"What are you doing out here?" they asked in unison and Megumi drew back and smiled as Sanosuke scratched his head.

"You go first," she suggested as she nodded towards him and Sanosuke straightened up against the tree trunk and cleared his throat, suddenly feeling very awkward.

"I needed some fresh air. This place just came to mind," he explained, deliberately dismissing the part about his whole reminiscing escapade, "What about you?"

"I was just thinking about something Suzuki asked me earlier," Megumi replied, looking up at the stars that seemed to be reaching out their tiny pointed hands to her, beckoning her to join them in the dark massive sky, "I came here because it's a great place to collect your thoughts. He was... asking me about you."

"Me?" Sanosuke asked, trying to hide the sudden puff of his chest, "Well, what did he want to know?" 

"He asked me what his father is like," she answered, her legs drawn up to her side in an elegant lady-like position, "he wanted to know if you were like Sir Ken, or Yahiko, or Tetsu."

"And what did you tell him?" Sanosuke asked, sitting up from where he leaned against the tree trunk so he could look at her face. Big mistake. It used up all his strength to keep himself back from kissing her senseless.

"I told him that you and Tetsu are like complete opposites," Megumi said after a pause, looking back at him with smiling eyes, "cut from two different kinds of cloth. Like fire to ice. Suzuki didn't really understand what I said though."

Again, another silence crept up on them.

"Do you love him?" Sanosuke asked suddenly. 

Megumi whipped around to face him with an astonished expression, "W... what?"

"Do you love your fiancé?" he repeated, softer this time, as if the very words pained him from the inside.

"I....! That...." Megumi stuttered, desperately struggling to find her voice, "I... I don't think this is suitable enough for us to be talking about..."

"Why are you avoiding the question?" Sanosuke prodded, his eyes turning serious and he saw her fidget in discomfort beside him, "It's really easy to answer. Do you love the guy or not?"

"I should go," Megumi said quickly, her back growing rigid, and she was on her feet in an instant, brushing the dirt off of her kimono as she turned around, "I can't be having this conversation with you, Sanosuke. Anyway, it's late and I really should start heading back. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

But by the time she turned around, Sanosuke was already on his feet and he gently pulled her back around to face him, startling her yet again. Megumi gasped in surprise as she found herself in his arms and opened her mouth to protest, but she quieted when she saw him looking at her. His gaze drifted down from hers, then lowered towards her lips, and Megumi found herself engulfed with the blazing flames dancing in his eyes.

"Just tell me when to stop," he whispered softly into her ear before planting his mouth down on hers, giving her what Megumi thought to be: the sweetest kiss in the entire world.

Stop him? Hah! She would have better luck pushing Mount Fuji all the way down to China. This was all she had wanted since the day he stopped her from plunging that knife into her heart in Kanryu's mansion, this was what she had been waiting for for almost an entire decade, this is what she had missed so much and cried an ocean for. Stopping him was impossible, but trying to resist was even harder. She had lost herself in their first kiss here that night six years ago, and she was losing herself in it again. 

Helpless, her arms slowly drifted to encircle his neck as she pressed harder against his mouth, whimpering softly as she slid her hands across the broadness of his shoulders, beneath his gi to touch the hot skin of his back, and all over the hard muscles of his chest. Sanosuke's entire body stiffened at her reaction and he growled seductively against her throat. 

Eager for more, his left hand moved to the nape of her neck, massaging lightly as his right traced down the small of her back, rounding over her bottom, and ran along the back of her left thigh. Reaching the crook of her knee, he lifted her leg up to him, using it as a lock to shackle them both into their own little world and he kneaded the soft white flesh with his thumb. Megumi unwillingly succumbed to his soft caresses and she let out a soft moan from the back of her throat, urging Sanosuke to do more.

He tasted so sweet, like the most delicious hint of honey. His tongue swept into her succulent mouth, teasing her, coaxing her, tempting her. It was all so much better than she remembered. Megumi's hands shifted from caressing his torso to running through the tall spikes of his hair, her fingers running along his scalp as if trying to reach into his very soul. 

Six years had been so long...

God, she wanted him. She wanted to become part of him, she wanted to cling onto his body and never let go. She wanted more than to have him as hers, she wanted more than to spend every waking moment making love with him and compensating for their lost time. She wanted it all. She needed it all. She had tried so hard to forget, but she had never stopped thinking about him. And she knew, she was still so utterly and hopelessly in love with Sanosuke Sagara. 

Suddenly, a loud crash in the distance caused them both to pull apart and they turned to the direction of the harsh sound. The shadows hid everything from vision, the moon's pale lighting not able to reach past the tangled branches of the trees and neither Sanosuke nor Megumi could see what had happened. 

Pulling further away from him, Megumi peered over to the area the sound came from, missing the hurt look in Sanosuke's eyes when she broke the embrace.

"What was that?" she asked with bewildered eyes, suddenly aware that she could be caught doing something that others would find so wrong for her to do but that she found felt so undeniably right.

"I have no idea," Sanosuke said absentmindedly, his attention fully directed to the woman in front of him, his lips growing cold from their separation, "it was probably just an animal or something. Just ignore it." 

Dismissing the sound altogether, he leaned down again to continue what they had started, his arms outstretched, but Megumi held her hand up to halt him and he stopped in mid-air, his hands barely touching her slim hips and his lips slightly parted in anticipation.

"We should be heading back now, Sanosuke. It's getting late. I don't want Suzuki to wake up and find me gone," she said, vacillating his intention to kiss her again and she shuddered at the mere thought. It took most of her energy to keep the quiver from her voice. "You should... go back to the dojo too. They're probably wondering where you are by now."

Solemn, Sanosuke nodded in agreement, hiding his disappointment that they had to stop. She was right, after all. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that Kenshin had realized he was missing and the short redhead had probably already started a one man search party all over the city. Disheartened, he sighed and followed her out of the forest, his hands settled deep in his pockets. 

They walked in silence all the way back to the clinic, not exactly awkward, but not exactly comfortable either. When they reached the door, Megumi turned to face him as he stood a step or two behind her on the porch.

"Thank you for walking me back," she said to him with a grateful smile. Sanosuke gave her a silent nod, a look of longing in his eyes as he watched her distance herself away from him yet again. Megumi bit her lip nervously. 

"Good night, Sanosuke." 

At that, Megumi turned to the open door and took a step inside, the screen door almost closing behind her when he paused her with his voice.

"Hey Fox," Sanosuke began, making Megumi hesitate in the doorway, "Sweet dreams."

She turned, and with a sincere smile and a polite nod, she turned back around, closing the door behind her softly shut and the screen door soon followed suit. 

Sano continued standing on the porch, watching the door she had just entered and he turned away from it at last as soon as he heard the locks clicking shut. Satisfied of her safety, he made his way out of the front yard, shutting the small picket fence behind him as his last duty for closing up the place. And giving one last look back at the clinic, he turned around to head back to the dojo with a little more bounce in his step. To add to his joy, Sanosuke casually whistled a sweet tune from the back of his head, adding music to the numerous scenes of Megumi playing over and over in his mind.

He failed to notice the dark figure standing behind a tree nearby from all his distracting happy thoughts and the man growled under his breath at Sanosuke's disappearing form. Tetsu stepped out from behind the tree's cover and looked at the clinic with angry eyes, his second jug of sake in hand and he took another giant swig. He had wasted the other one when he threw it against the tree after seeing them together in the forest earlier that night and his lack of alcohol only made him more furious.

"We'll just see how well you can ignore me, Sagara," Tetsu muttered brusquely into the cold night air and he spat on the ground before taking his leave, walking away from the clinic to head over to his own home with wicked plans clotting up his brain.

A/N: dramatic music plays Bwahahahahaha! I think this has gotta be the best cliffhanger I've left you guys with so far! Anyway, the next chapter I'm gonna have to put this story on rating R so look for it there if you wanna find out what's gonna happen. As usual, reviews are always welcome. Sorry if I don't respond in these author notes, but if you want a response, give me your e-mail. Hope you liked it!


	6. A Mother's Determination

Chapter 5:

"A Mother's Determination"

  
  


It was the night after her little encounter with Sanosuke in the forest, a rather pleasant encounter I might add. Just thinking about it made her cheeks flush red and her heart skip a beat. For a moment, Megumi closed her eyes. She could still feel his lips on her's, so soft and tender, soothing but erotic... A loud knock at the door instantly brought her out of her beautiful daydream and she silently scolded herself for getting so carried away with her thoughts. Putting on her best smile, she straightened out her doctor's smock and headed over to open the door. 

"Oh, Tetsu, hi! I wasn't expecting you for dinner tonight," Megumi exclaimed, her mood as happy as Tetsu had ever seen her and he frowned inside, having a pretty idea of why she was acting so light-hearted, "Come on in. Dinner's still on the stove so if you don't mind waiting a little bit then we can eat together."

"Hi, Sweetheart. Where's Suzuki?" he asked, looking behind her to the inside of the house for a sign of the little runt he discreetly despised and Megumi obliviously pointed down the hallway toward his room. 

"Sleeping in his room already. He felt pretty tired from his training today with Yahiko and he just collapsed as soon as he got home," Megumi explained with a smile, "so we'll be eating dinner alone then. Come on inside, it's cold out."

Megumi opened the door wider to allow him entrance to her home and he gave her a fake smile before entering the clinic, the sweet aroma of food cooking in the kitchen enveloping his senses and he breathed it all in. Megumi smiled at his reaction toward the smell of the food and closed the door after he was fully inside. 

Quickly, but as gracefully as humanly possible, she walked ahead of him to the kitchen where she continued to stir the soup on the stove, humming softly the same tune Tetsu had heard Sanosuke whistling the night before. She threw more of the ingredients for the soup into the prodigious silver pot and stirred the wooden spoon inside it again. Tetsu watched her as she did this, remembering the night before when he saw her with Sanosuke in the forest and he clenched his fists. Her pleasant humming only added to his fury as he glared at her back. Megumi remained unaware of the extreme hatred he felt for her that could have boiled the rest of the soup as she resumed stirring the food like there was nothing in the entire universe that could bring her down.

Suddenly, Tetsu stepped up from behind her, only inches away from her body and roughly grabbed her wrist, causing her to drop the spoon in surprise. With his free hand he reached over her shoulder and shut off the stove, never letting go of his strong grip on her left hand.

"Ow, Tetsu. Loosen up already," Megumi said as she winced at the pain he gave her from his grasp, oblivious to the fact that he was hurting her on purpose, "you're... hurting me." 

Spinning her around to face him, he grabbed her other wrist as Megumi locked eyes with his steel pupils, one increasingly lighter than the other, and they pierced through her sharper than the knives she owned near the cupboard and she gasped at the malevolent look he gave her.

"How was your walk last night, Megumi?" Tetsu demanded angrily, his face inches away from her's, his hands now tightly holding both her wrists as he pressed her back against the stove, "Did you have fun on your little date?"

"What?! I... I don't know what you're talking about," Megumi lied, "I was here at the clinic all of last night."

"Don't lie to me, you stupid bitch!" he shouted at her and he struck her across the face, sending her flying across the room and she lunged forward, gripping the table nearby so she wouldn't end up face first on the floor. While Megumi was still in shock, cradling her cheek from where he had slapped her, Tetsu grabbed her right arm, twisting it behind her back and she wretched forward from the pain. "I saw you with him last night, you dirty whore!" he spat at her, pulling her arm farther back behind her, "And don't you dare lie to me again!"

"Okay, okay... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Just... just let me go," Megumi pleaded with him and he impatiently threw her down onto the tatami mat with a hard shove, letting out all his frustration on the defenseless woman. Her body slid a few good feet across the floor, the texture rough against her skin, and she lay on the ground, too scared to move a muscle as she examined the throbbing hand in front of her.

Turning back to face him, she gritted her teeth and stared at him with daggers replacing the usual soft gaze of her cinnamon colored eyes. "You're despicable," she spat at him, her shoulder-length hair hiding part of her face, adding to the effect of her insult as she still kneeled on the ground cradling her wrist, refusing to look him fully in the face.

With the same amount of anger in his own eyes, he stalked over to where she sat and struck her face so hard that her cheek changed as red as blood and her head turned to the left from the hard impact. The loud smacking sound of hand against cheek barely had time to resound before Tetsu hit her again, causing her head to turn to the other side, her face no longer it's natural porcelain white color. Tears streamed down her cheeks as he resumed with his beating of her body, paying absolutely no attention whatsoever to the pain he was causing her. He pushed her back down harder onto the ground, pining her down with his heavy body and she wrestled underneath him.

"No! Get off me! Get off!" she cried, pushing at him with all her might, but he refused to budge, not even an inch, "No! Get away from me!"

"Shut the hell up!" he shouted and he slapped her again, "Let's see if whatever that man sees in you really hits the mark! I'll find out for myself if you are as good a whore as you are a cook! Take off your clothes!"

"No! Get off of me!" Megumi shrieked, kicking hard with her knees against his stomach as she vigorously shook her head, "Don't you touch me!"

But her cries were soon quieted with another slap to the face and all that was heard was her soft whimpers of fright. Megumi kept her face turned, her tears coursing down from her reddened cheeks and creating a tiny puddle of fast evaporating water on the floor.

"If you won't do it, then I'll do it myself!" he barked at her. 

Megumi could feel the vibrations of his booming voice against the reverberating floor and she felt herself tremble from underneath him. He viciously grabbed the collar of her purple kimono, pining her arms down with his elbows, digging into them, and he ripped the dress all the way down the middle. Grabbing at the open flaps, he parted the rest of her ruined dress to reveal her naked body.

"No! Stop it!" Megumi shrieked again as she continued to struggle and get away from his attempts to touch her, wrenching her arms from underneath his sharp elbows as she tried to close her torn kimono and hide her exposed body, "Stop it right now! Please... Just stop it!"

"Damn it, just cooperate!" Tetsu snapped at her, pulling away her hands from where she held fast to her dress and he pined them both behind her back with one hand, "You are mine! I am your god damn fiancé, woman, and you will do whatever I want! No questions asked! I can use you or your body whenever the hell I feel like it and you will cooperate!"

Megumi turned her head from side to side, tears falling from her eyes faster than rain from the clouds as she refused to listen to him, fighting against him again, only to get slapped even harder. She opened her mouth to scream for help, but Tetsu's hand came over it to silence her before she could even utter a sound and her shriek only came out to be a tiny muffled whine. She continued to cry and scream through his hand, but it never went through, not by a long shot. She shut her eyes tightly closed, the tears still streaming down her face in geysers as she tried to block out the feeling of his rough hands on her body. 

Megumi wanted to wake up, just wake up and see that this was all just a terrible nightmare brought on by her misconceived feelings about Tetsu. Megumi wanted to find herself safe and warm in her bed, the blankets wrapped around her instead of Tetsu's callused hands. But no matter how she tried or how many tears fell from her eyes, she didn't wake up from the horrid dream and the pain of her arms pined behind her, his hand overlying her mouth, and his reckless and brash thrusts inside her still remained as real and tangible as the air in the room and the floor she was lying on.

His making love to her was not at all like anything she had ever felt before and she hated it. She hated it more than anything in the world. Whatever she thought she knew about cruelty at Kanryu's mansion was nothing compared to what Tetsu was doing to her right now. Tetsu's love making, no, it wasn't love; there was no existing love in what he was doing. What he was doing was raping her, abusing and perverting her mind and body to such limits that she thought she might go mad. 

He was the exact opposite of Sanosuke, who was gentle and sensual with his movements. Whether it be her first time with him as a virgin or the other times when she was not, Sanosuke always made love to her in the sweetest way possible. Only the thought of him kept her from going completely insane.

Tetsu was not at all gentle. He moved hard and crudely inside of her, adding to the pain already from the bruises all over her body and the screaming agony in her heart. He hadn't even bothered to remove all his clothing, only taking off his pants, the only thing he felt necessary to be discarded. His brash ramming made her feel like a virgin once again, the pain ripping through her entire being as if he were literally trying to tear her from the inside out. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry for help, but the only help nearby was her son, Suzuki, and she did not want to put him in the hands of this... this monster that was taking advantage of her. 

'God, make him stop....' Megumi silently prayed as she shut her eyes as tightly closed as remotely possible, 'Stop.... please stop...'

Megumi cried the whole time; her screams drowned out by the barrier of his hand, her whole body aching from head to toe. When he finally finished having his way with her and found his release, he roughly pushed her away like an old rag doll, not even treating her with the respect of a human being by at least gently taking himself out of her. His exit was just as rough as his entrance. He pulled his trousers back up, his hand still remained covering her mouth just in case she wanted to yell for help while he got dressed and she contemplated the thought of biting off a few of his fingers. But before she could decide, Tetsu moved back over to her, his icy white and black eyes boring into her like a hawk examining it's prey, and Megumi felt shivers run up every vertebrae in her spine. She trembled when he came closer, scared of just what else he planned to do to her, his face so close to hers that their noses brushed against each others and she found herself paralyzed with fear.

"You tell anyone about this and you will regret it deeply," Tetsu whispered harshly into her ear, his hand tightening over her mouth as Megumi started hyperventilating, "You wouldn't want anything bad to happen to that beloved son of yours now, would you?"

"Suzuki?" Megumi murmured, but her voice only came out in a soft muffle from under his large hand and she vigorously shook her head, "No, not Suzuki...."

"Then you will tell no one about this. You will pretend like none of this ever happened and if you don't... It would be a shame to see that little boy's body floating down the river nearby. I'm sure he will be missed," Tetsu hissed at her, Megumi's eyes widening in sheer terror at the mention of her son's promised death and again, she violently shook her head, "I didn't think you'd like that. So, if you don't want that little 'accident' to happen, you will not tell a single soul of what happened here tonight. Do you understand me?"

Megumi nodded her head, not once blinking from the death gaze he held of her eyes as she continued to shake from underneath him. He smirked at her, slowly removing the clamp he had on her lips and he got up to leave, picking up his jacket on the coat hanger by the door. Megumi let out her held breath as soon as he was a good few feet away from where she still lay on the floor and she waited for the sound of the door to close, her eyes shutting again to block out the image of his smirking face.

"Oh and before I forget..." Tetsu said on the porch, holding the door open slightly as he turned back to his bride-to-be, "Have a nice night, Sweetheart."

And with that, the door shut quietly closed behind him, the screen door swinging to a halt as it hit the frame and Tetsu walked out of the clinic's front yard and out into the streets. 

Megumi stayed where she was, still unable to move as she collected her thoughts of all the events that had just happened, her body still cold and bare against the tatami mat of the kitchen floor and she sick to her stomach. She involuntarily lurched forward, vomiting onto the floor as the sick feeling in her heart and abdomen overwhelmed her, and she gave in to it's tugging at her stomach and vomited again. She felt more than sick. She felt dirty, disgusting, used; and like a robot, Megumi got up from the floor, stepping over the puddles of thrown up food as she made her way over to the bathroom down the hall.

She didn't even think about it as she walked down the hall in a trance, her hand gripping the front of her kimono to hold it closed and her other hand ran down the walls she passed as she made her way over to the bathroom. Her mind raced with the promise of death Tetsu claimed for her precious son and the image of his frail little body found on the bank of the river the next morning and it scrambled any thoughts of common sense she had left in her. Silently, Megumi slipped into the bathtub, pouring the water of a scorching hot temperature inside to help melt away the internal filth she felt on her body and mind. She stared off at the nearby wall, grabbing at the sponge on the side of the bucket and she viciously scrubbed at her arms, legs, and chest. 

The memories of Tetsu molesting her flooded into her brain just as the water flooded into the tub and Megumi scrubbed her body harder at the remembrances of his hard body against her's and the horrible feeling of him inside of her, rubbing the sponge over her left arm over and over again until it was skinned raw. She only noticed the condition of her arm's flesh when she felt the warm blood trickling down her wrist to her elbow and she lifted her arm up in curiosity, turning her arm from side to side to examine it as if the blood made no sense to her.

Blood. Her blood, the blood that Suzuki had inherited from her... Megumi clenched her fist at the thought of Tetsu threatening her baby boy and she shut her eyes to block out the forbidden tears. She watched as the steady red stream trickled down to the tip of her bruised elbow, dripping down one at a time into the warm water in the tub that was now overflowing and gushing onto the bathroom floor. With the bath water spotted with crimson color, Megumi continued to stare, not really realizing what was going on, and she slowly pulled her non-bloody hand back to stop pushing at the water. She leaned back against the tub then, her brain still not functioning to it's full potential as she continued to stare off into space. The tears no longer came as her eyes were as dry as the hottest Sahara dessert and she didn't dare to blink more than twice a minute.

It took quite some time before Megumi recollected herself enough to be able to leave the tub and when she got up, her body dripping wet, she wrapped her warm robe around herself, tying it tighter than usual around her body. With the experience of having her body used in such an inappropriate manner, Megumi didn't want to go through that mistake again and she hugged her arms around her stomach. She didn't even bother with her hair as she headed down the hall to her son's room, her bare feet making soft padding sounds as they made contact with the wood planks and she paused at Suzuki's door to listen to the gentle snoring sounds he made as he slept.

As silently as possible, Megumi slid open the door, the tiny ray of the hallway light flooding through the room, and ending in a large V-shape on her son's sleeping face. She crept over to where Suzuki slept in his bed and she stood there watching his chest rise and fall with every breath he took. Lovingly, she swept down, placed a tender kiss on his forehead and gently smoothed his soft brown hair from out of his eyes. God was the only one that could ever know how much she loved him.

"Me and you, Angel, we're a team. I don't know what I would've done without you... The day I had you, I made a promise to myself. You know what I said? I said that if anyone ever... ever tries to hurt you like they did to me..." Megumi paused to wipe her eyes with her trembling hand. "There's nothing in the world that would keep me from protecting you, Suzuki. Nothing. I swore back then that I would never let you feel what I had to go through... and I'll swear it again," Megumi said aloud as she watched her son stir in his sleep and turn over to his side to lye in a more comfortable position, "Suzuki, I will do anything and everything I can to protect you. No matter what happens..."

  
  


A/N: GOD, PLEASE DON'T HATE ME! I know it's horrible! I don't even like Tetsu so don't worry about it! I warned you before that it was gonna get angsty... Leave a review if you want, but no flames please! I think I'm depressed enough already in writing this chapter...


	7. When Hell Freezes Over

A/N: I know I don't usually write my notes at the beginning of the chapter but I need to get something off my chest. Here goes: Don't bash on my review page, punch a pillow instead! With that said, I feel much better now! ^^

  
  


Chapter 6:

"When Hell Freezes Over"

  
  


The next three days were a complete hell for Megumi. She and Suzuki remained inside the clinic for half of the week, not being able to see their friends at the dojo at all from Megumi's paranoia that something might happen if she so much as set foot outside. The bruises on her arms and face raised questions from her son, but she was always able to brush them off and make up some story that seemed plausible enough for him to let it slide. Her left eye was still black and swollen, no matter how much ice she put on it or however long she applied medication. She couldn't leave the house, not with knowing that Tetsu was out there somewhere, willing and ready to endanger her son and her at any moment he felt like it and Megumi had no way of stopping it. She absolutely hated being helpless.

"Mommy! Can't I go outside and play today?" Suzuki whined, tugging at the sleeve of Megumi's green kimono. He had been able to stay secluded for three whole days now from any other human being besides his own mother and a patient or two that needed medical attention and he was sick and tired of it. Suzuki wanted to go outside, at least out in the front yard, just as long as he could leave the awful presence of terror in his home. "Please, Mommy..." he pleaded again when Megumi didn't answer, "Can't you just walk me to the dojo? I want to see Kenji and everyone else! I miss them!"

Megumi turned to her son and gently caressed the side of his face. She hated to have him cooped up in the house like this just as much as he did. Children were made for the outdoors, to be seen playing with other children outside, and here she was locking him away in their stuffy clinic without so much as a friend to come over. Her heart absolutely melted when she saw the puppy-dog eyes he gave her, his secret weapon against her that he had inherited from his father, the mastermind of wicked, who displayed it proudly on his back. 

She missed seeing everyone too. Even missed Kaoru and her horrible cooking. She sighed loudly, letting Suzuki know that he had won the eternal battle and he threw his arms in the air in celebration.

"Yay!" he cried, punching both fists into the air, "I'll go get my stuff! Come on, Mom, we have to go get ready!" Suzuki anxiously pulled at his mother's hand, not noticing how she winced from the sore spot of where Tetsu had practically broken her wrist, but she was a good actress and she was able to smile despite the pain. Obediently, she got up before he could realize she was in pain from her old injuries and she followed him further into the hall to get ready to go.

"Just give me a few minutes to get ready, okay, Suzuki?" Megumi said quietly and she slid the door to her room closed behind her after hearing his response. 

Megumi entered her room and grimaced at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was flat and lifeless, sticking to the sides of her face like velcro, making her pale features look even whiter and her eyes no longer held the friendly sparkle and shimmer of gold that indicated that she was happy. She sighed as she picked up her powder puff and patted it over her face in hopes of making all the bluish-black spots become less visible, but it didn't work too well at all. In fact, the color of the powder was now a completely different shade from her battered face and it only made her wounds stand out more. 

Frustrated at her appearance and the person that had caused her to look like she did, Megumi angrily brushed the powder off her face with violent strokes and she wiped away the tears on her cheeks at the same time, the endless water streams that she bid only to come when her son was nowhere in sight.

"Mommy! Hurry up!" Suzuki called from the door, his patience growing into a taut line, thinning out with every second that passed by, "Come on, Mom! Let's go!"

"I'll be right there!" she hollered back from her room and she gave the mirror one last look at her horrible reflection before she headed out the door. She stopped in the kitchen on her way out, grabbing a basket of Ohagi on the counter that she had baked that morning as she made her way to the front door. If she couldn't look good, she could at least compensate for her appearance with their favorite snack. Finding her son waiting impatiently against the porch bench, she smiled at him and put out her hand for him to hold. "Okay, I'm ready now. Let's go."

  
  


Sanosuke paused for a moment to wipe the beads of sweat that rolled down his forehead with the back of his hand as he set the ax down on a nearby tree stump. He had been ordered by Kaoru to go outside and chop some wood for the stove to earn his keep at her dojo again since he had simply refused to do the laundry. After a lot of arguing and a couple swings from Kaoru's bokken, he had finally let up when she insisted that he make himself useful for once. The words 'for once' was what really got him up.

His hair was back to normal, up in the usual tall spikes atop his head and pulled back with his red bandana that he received when he was a part of the Sekihoutai when he was still about seven years old. He had left his green cloak at the clinic the first time he went to visit Megumi and he had forgotten to get it back to this day. 

Sanosuke lifted his hand over his head to shield his eyes from the sun's bright rays that scorched down on his bare back and he looked up to see the giant fire sphere burning through the clouds. 

A sunset, just like the one he had seen the last day he had been in Tokyo, leaving behind everything dear to him; his home, his friends, his fiance... Sanosuke felt his chest tighten at the thought of Megumi. He had left her and now she was engaged to someone else that she didn't love. He knew she didn't love Tetsu. It was more than obvious the night before from the response she gave toward his kiss. His eyes steadily closed, thinking back to the soft feel of her mouth and the sweet taste of her tongue, but suddenly, his concentration was interrupted.

"Mr. Sagara!" Suzuki called from the door, making Sanosuke turn at the familiar sound of his son's voice that he hadn't heard for almost a week. He turned to see the little boy running over to him from the dojo's entrance and Sanosuke leaned down to the ground with his arms outstretched and his son launched himself into them, barely noticing the trickles of sweat from Sanosuke's chest that dampened his shirt.

"Hey, you little monkey!" Sanosuke laughed as he lifted the boy up into his arms and threw him up in the air. Suzuki laughed with delight at the gravity-defying toss before Sanosuke finally set him down on his hip. "I haven't seen you in a while! How's your mom?" At the mention of his mother, Suzuki's festive smile drooped at the corners as if an anvil were weighing them down as he remembered how awful his mother's condition was. Sanosuke noticed the falter in his grin and he bounced him a bit on his hip. "Hey, what's the matter? Your Mom's okay, right?" Sanosuke asked, looking the boy in the face, but Suzuki kept his head down low, twiddling his thumbs as he slowly shook his head.

"I don't know, Mr. Sagara," Suzuki said, his voice hardly audible as he practically whispered under his breath and Sano strained to hear him, "I don't know what's wrong with her. She's not acting right..."

"What do you mean?" Sanosuke asked, worry crossing over his face as he thought of all the worst diseases in the world she could have caught due to her job as a doctor, "Is she sick?"

"No, I'm not sick," Megumi suddenly replied from behind them, her hands still clasping the tiny basket of food as she looked up at him with melancholy eyes, "I never get sick, you know that."

Sanosuke turned to stare at her, setting his son down on the ground after his request to go see the other people at the dojo and he focused his gaze on Megumi's belabored face. Her left eye was black and amplified. The swelling couldn't have been hidden even with all the make-up in the world. They had lost their welcoming twinkle and the sparks of fire that he had always been enchanted by. Her cheeks were pale, like she had just spent the night in an igloo. Her bottom lip was cut in the middle, chapped from lack of moisture, and she was no longer wearing her insatiable red lipstick that she almost never left the house without. 

"Shit... Megumi, what happened to you?!" Sanosuke exclaimed, moving closer to her as if nearing her would wash away all the wounds and assorted colors on her face, but they never faded, "What happened? Are you okay? Here, let me see..." 

Sanosuke took a step forward, his hand reaching up to touch her thrashed cheek with utter concern in his warm gaze. But before Megumi could utter some kind of excuse for her battered appearance, Kaoru, Kenshin and Yahiko emerged from the dojo and walked out to greet her with giant smiles playing across their lips, but at the sight of her beaten face, their Soujiro-like smiles dropped.

"Oh my god... Miss Megumi, are you alright?" Kaoru asked, running over to her friend with her arms open wide and she took hold of the lady doctor's shoulders. Megumi winced from the shocking vibrations that ran up her shoulders and Kaoru jumped back in surprise, "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know... Are... are you okay?"

Megumi gave her friend a weak smile even though the slightest touch of Kaoru's hand on her shoulder gave her more pain than she showed on the outside. Sanosuke still watched her as she delicately nodded her head, but he saw the flash of pain in her eyes even with that tiny motion of her neck. He looked her over again with sad eyes and he longed to kiss away all her wounds. The Megumi he knew and had fallen in love with was now hidden somewhere far beneath the ragged woman in front of him that seemed to be trying to hold back from crying out in agony. 

"You should come inside now, Miss Megumi, that you should," Kenshin suggested as he ushered her inside, his arm placed gently around her and he led her inside the dojo. 

Megumi flinched at the touch of a man, her mind and body still fragile from the night Tetsu had used her body as his play thing and she internally scolded herself for reacting that way towards Kenshin. He wasn't Tetsu; not at all. Kenshin was one of her best friends, one of the nicest people she knew, and here she was, scared that he just might strike her across the face just like Tetsu had. Megumi brushed the thought away and cautiously walked inside, her left leg dragging a bit behind her. Yahiko, Kaoru, and Sanosuke followed only a few feet behind them, watching with concern for their friend.

"Look..." Yahiko whispered, pointing at Megumi's left leg as she slowly walked alongside Kenshin and the red headed rurouni helped her sit down at the table, "She was limping..."

  
  


"Miss Megumi, would you like to tell us what happened?" Kenshin asked as he handed her a cup of ginseng tea. Megumi nodded in gratitude, bringing the small cup to her lips to drink it down and soothe the giant ball that had gathered up in her throat. But when she lifted her arm up to hoist the cup to her mouth, the sleeves of her kimono fell down to her elbows, revealing the darkened damages all over her arms. 

Everyone focused solely on the long bandage on her left arm from her wrist to her elbow that was spotted with blood; the place where she had scrubbed her flesh bare of skin.

"Megumi! What on earth happened to you?!" Yahiko cried as he gaped at the injuries on her arms, "How many more of these cuts and bruises do you have?"

"Oh... These? Well, I...." Megumi murmured nervously as she racked her brain for a fake story to tell them, but all she could think of was the disturbing thoughts of Tetsu's horrid way of perverting her body. The vexing images of her son's dead figure floating down the river made her brush away the voice in her head that told her to tell them what really happened. "I... I was just clumsy, that's all. I... slipped in the tub a few days ago."

"And you got all those injuries from that?" Kenshin asked her suspiciously, his head tilting to the side as he tried to make eye contact with her, "But then, how did you get your black eye, Miss Megumi?"

"It was a pretty bad fall..." Megumi replied, looking down at the ground to avoid their steady gazes on her and she bit her lip from shouting out the truth, "I slipped in the tub and hit the surface pretty hard. That's what happened... The bruises, they'll heal in just a little while, don't worry about it. They... they don't hurt anymore. Really, I'm.... I'm alright."

Not one single person in the room believed her story and they continued looking at her with concern, wondering why she wouldn't tell them the reality behind her lies. She wasn't alright, not even close to it, that much was obvious. She wasn't alright when she limped when she walked and recoiled whenever someone touched her body and Megumi knew that as well as they did. Her voice had cracked a little bit in the end and they heard the edgy sound in her speech when she said that her wounds didn't hurt anymore, indicating otherwise. 

Megumi looked up at them, but immediately looked back down at the ground when she realized how troubled they were for her behalf and she balled up her fists in her lap to keep herself from crying.

"Megumi, we're your friends," Yahiko comforted, leaning forward across the table to look at her, "you can tell us anything. Anything at all... What really made you get all those bruises on your body?"

Megumi's grip on her skirt tightened and her body shook as she fought against herself to keep her tears hidden behind the darkened oasis of her pupils. She kept her head lowered and her hair covered half of her face as she battled with her vow to protect her son and the truth from what was left from the authority of her mind.

"I know you're all my friends. And you're all really really good friends, but I already... I told you what happened..." Megumi choked, her voice breaking off as the protective wall of her willpower not to cry began to crumble and she got up from where she sat, forcing a smile on her face for the people around her, "I thank you all for being worried about me, but I'm fine... I'm alright. I just need to watch out where I step next time in the tub, that's all... That's what happened. Really, that's the truth..."

"Megumi, you don't have to lie to us. You don't have to make up some cover up story," Sanosuke said to her, solicitude written all over his face as he watched her get up, "If you're in some kind of trouble, you can tell us and we'll help you."

"Yeah, we're all here for you if you ever need us," Kaoru agreed, followed by several nods from Yahiko and Kenshin to back her up. Their utmost consideration for her safety could have sent her bawling on the floor if she didn't have Suzuki to protect and she fought against the tantalizing break down again. Her eyes watered and a tiny tear planted itself onto one of her bottom lashes, but Megumi pretended it wasn't even there as she nodded her head at them.

"Again, thank you... but I'm really not in trouble or anything like that..." Megumi lied again, her knuckles turning white from the hard grasp she had around herself, "Really, I'm not..."

"Did he hit you?" Sanosuke interrupted suddenly, rising from his seat to face her, "Tetsu. Did he hit you?"

"No!" Megumi answered, a little too quickly for her reply to be believable and she shook her head violently from left to right, "No. No, he didn't." But everyone at the table was less than convinced. Even Megumi didn't believe herself as she heard her own voice speaking out the false words she was forced to say. "I already told you that I slipped in the bathtub... that's how I got all these injuries..." she said again, the sad look she directed toward Sanosuke making his heart wretch and it went out to her as she continued talking and rubbing her bandaged left arm, "I'm not in trouble... there's nothing wrong... I just... I just..." 

"Miss Megumi, I really don't think you're alright, that I don't," Kenshin replied softly and he got up from his seat, "No matter what you say, I can tell that something is definitely wrong, that I can. You seem to be very upset about this 'fall' you took or upset about something that you're not telling us about. Please, sit back down and we'll talk this over, that we will. We're here to help you." 

Kenshin gestured over to her seat at the end of the table with a reassuring nod, but Megumi looked at the pillow on the floor as if it were the electric chair. She wouldn't be able to hold this up for much longer. She knew that if she continued to sit here and talk with her friends, she was going to break down and tell them every little excruciating detail of that night and she couldn't have that. Megumi was determined to protect her son at all costs, even if it meant taking the abuse she did. 

Slowly, Megumi shook her head at his polite offer to discuss what was bothering her and she hugged herself tighter. She was the only person in the world that could do anything about her problems and she was the only person that she could rely on to solve them. 'Getting everyone else involved with my silly issues would only make matters worse,' Megumi thought to herself as she began backing away from the table, 'they can't help me and I can't help myself... I'm stuck with this whether I like it or not. All I can do is keep my promise to Suzuki and protect him with my every ounce of strength. I can't tell them the truth... I can't tell them anything... I can't kill my son... Telling them would be just like drowning him with my own two hands. They can't know...' 

"I really should be heading back to the clinic now," Megumi finally announced as she stood with her back to the closed shoji door, "I've just been troubling you with all this and I really should... just go..."

"Megumi, wait!" Sanosuke called out as he stood up from his seat and he strode over to where she stood in front of the door, "Whether you're going to tell us what's wrong or not, there's obviously something bothering you and I don't want you walking over there by yourself. Come on, I'll go with you." 

Megumi opened her mouth to protest, but Sanosuke was already out the door and picking up Suzuki. With a small bow of gratitude to everyone else at the table, she turned and followed her son and his father out of the dojo and into the streets.

By the time they reached the clinic, Megumi felt so sick with herself from lying, she felt like kicking herself, but instead she settled on cradling her arms around her chest and looking down at the ground. Suzuki turned away from Sano, still unaware that he gave him his life, and stared at his mother with curious eyes. She hadn't said a word throughout the entire walk home and he was beginning to think she was sad again. Megumi didn't know it, but he heard her every night, sobbing in her room.

"Are you cold, Mommy?" Suzuki asked her while he remained in Sanosuke's arms and his father turned to look at Megumi as well, who stared at her son with blank eyes. Suzuki repeated himself. "Do you wish Daddy was here to warm your heart like he did before? Is your heart cold again, Mommy?" 

Sanosuke gazed at Megumi, watching her as she bit her bottom lip that he saw quiver at her son's innocent question and she swallowed hard.

"Suzuki, why don't you run along inside," Sanosuke suggested as he set his son down on his feet, changing the subject to calm Megumi's uneasiness, "I need to talk to your mom really quick, okay?"

"Okay," Suzuki agreed and Sanosuke proudly ruffled the hair on top of his son's head before the little boy ran inside the clinic and closed the door, leaving his parents outside alone without any knowledge whatsoever that what he just said had made his mother even more uncomfortable.

Turning to Megumi, Sanosuke cleared his throat and scratched his head at the awkward situation, still thinking about what Suzuki had meant about him warming her heart and he tried to find the right thing to say to her. But before he could say a word, Megumi's head came up from it's droop and she gave him the tiniest little smile she could muster up.

"Thank you for walking us back here, you didn't have to do that," Megumi stated, her hands clasped in front of her as if in prayer, "I'll just go inside now..." She began to brush past him when he gently caught her arm. Megumi's eyes widened despite the fact that she knew that he was probably going to do this and he pulled her back around as gingerly as possible so he wouldn't further her injuries.

"Are you sure there isn't anything you wanna tell me, Megumi?" he asked her, his eyes possessing hers with the lock of his powerful gaze, "It's not the Kenshin-gumi. It's me. You don't have to hide anything anymore. Because if there is something troubling you, you should let me know and I'll help you in any way I can." Megumi stayed completely silent, biting down on her lip again to stop herself from bursting into tears. Sanosuke still held onto her hand, but he slowly released it to run his hands over her arms to calm her down as she began to shiver uncontrollably. He didn't know what it was that was happening to her, but it was definitely something big and she was scared to death by it. "Hey..." he whispered to her as she sniffled, "Come here..."

On instinct, tired of holding up her prophylactic invisible walls, she walked into his loving embrace and his arms wrapped themselves around her like a blanket. Megumi felt that warmth again, breathing life back into her heart. It coursed through her veins and pumped it right back to enlighten her soul. Sanosuke's eyes softened as he felt her rest her head against his chest, the way she always used to when she was in his arms and he let out a content sigh, placing his head to rest on hers. Megumi instantly relaxed against him, not bothering to wipe back the single tear that had escaped from it's prison in her eyes and slipped out of it's corner, sliding down her cheek until it splashed down onto his bare chest.

"Megumi," he whispered softly into her ear as he held her to him as close as he dared without crushing her, as if she might disappear if he did otherwise, "I love you..."

"Sano...." Megumi murmured, her hands tightly gripping the opening of his jacket as she saw the small tear trickle down the muscles on his chest, "... I ..."

This was Sanosuke. The one man that had picked her up when she was at her lowest, showed her the right of way to compensate for all she did wrong, brought heat when her hell had almost frozen over, the father of her child... Suzuki. 

Megumi's eyes shot open at the thought of her son, the picture Tetsu embedded into her brain of his dead body pushing itself back into her memory and she saw her son's face. His eyes were closed, but his mouth gaped wide open in a never-ending soundless scream and she imagined herself cradling his dead form in her arms, the tears never failing to fall from her eyes. The horrible image brought her back to her senses, snapped her back into reality as she remembered the vow Tetsu told her the night he had ravaged her body.

'You will pretend like none of this ever happened and if you don't... It would be a shame to see that little boy's body floating down the river nearby. I'm sure he will be missed. Now, if you don't want that little 'accident' to happen, you will not tell a single soul of what happened here tonight. Do you understand me?'

Megumi immediately jerked away from Sanosuke's hold around her waist, but not before he felt the damp spot on his chest from where the tear had fallen upon and he looked at her in surprise at the sudden jolt.

"I can't do this..." Megumi whispered as she backed away from him towards the clinic, "I'm sorry, but I can't do this..."

"Megumi, tell me what's going on," Sanosuke said gently as he took a step closer to her, but she took another step back to keep the distance between them. One more minute with him and she would surely tell him everything; she needed to stay away. "Megumi, tell me what's wrong. What are you scared of? Did Tetsu do something to you? Did he threaten you?"

"I... I have to go inside now, Sanosuke," Megumi said, ignoring his previous questions as if he hadn't even said them as her feet automatically stepped away from him as if he were some kind of form of the plague, brushing off his intimacy and worry like it was nothing, "Suzuki's probably wondering what's taking me so long... I really have to go inside now..."

"Wait, Megumi!" Sanosuke half-shouted, but she was already inside before he could stop her, the closed door blocking out any sounds from the outdoors. Silently, he shook his head, a hurt look smeared on his face as he looked at the locked door of the clinic in front of him. Yet another thing that separated her from his arms. 

"Why, Megumi? Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" he whispered into the air, his words so light that the wind carried it off into the air and they drifted into Megumi's ears as she sobbed on the other side of the clinic's door. 

"I'm sorry..." she whispered, tiny droplets trickling down the side of the oak door like the endless stream the city fished in, "Sanosuke..." Megumi's injured hands moved to cover her face as she curled up into a tight ball around herself to try and bring the warmth back into her heart. She had to say it, now, even with knowing that he wouldn't hear her.

"I love you..."

  
  


A/N: See? Tetsu wasn't even in this chapter! ^^ I know, another sad one... It's angst, what can I say? Anyway, I don't want to give away the ending but I think in this case, I should let you know one thing. It ends HAPPY! Please review without saying "Kill Tetsu" it gets me depressed when you do... Encouraging reviews would be helpful.


	8. Sanosuke's Instincts

Chapter 7:

"Sanosuke's Instincts"

  
  


Sanosuke splashed the cold water of the well onto his perspiring face, closing his eyes as he felt the tiny droplets course down his cheeks, gathering at the strong point of his chin and slowly dripped back down into the water below. Past images entered his mind as he placed his hands on the stone walls of the well in the front yard of the Kamiya dojo. Even on the next day after having seen Megumi and Suzuki again the afternoon the day before, the impressions of Megumi's grievous look in her once fiery eyes still stayed implanted into his brain as if he had just Futae-No-Kiwami-ed it into his mind. Pictures of Megumi's contused face and the black and blue cuts and bruises all over her body made him shudder at how she had apprehended them. 

Sanosuke knew an abused woman when he saw one and Megumi had somehow plundered her way into that description. He knew that Tetsu had exploited her, causing all the damages Sanosuke was able to see on her body, but Tetsu had more than just broken a few bones or blood vessels; he had broken Megumi's spirit. Sanosuke had seen how she had flinched at Kenshin's touch when he had placed his arm around her shoulders to help her inside the dojo and he saw how quick she was to back away whenever anyone had tried to touch her. Only when they were finally alone in front of the clinic did her emotional blockage falter and had she let him hold her.

He still couldn't forget the terrible shaking of her body and he hadn't failed to notice the single tear that fell from her eyes and washed itself onto his chest. He knew all these things for sure, but what he wasn't too clear on was why she was lying about it. She trusted him, didn't she? She trusted him enough to tell him when she was in trouble, right? Sanosuke shook his head, the drops of well water streaming down faster at the vital movement and plummeted down to the well below. He wasn't positive about what exactly Tetsu did to disable her both physically and mentally from telling him what happened, but he did know one thing. Tetsu was going to pay for what he had done to his Megumi; Sanosuke would make sure of that.

His eyes shot open, his pupils dancing with blazes of red and orange flames and his grip on the well's stone wall tightened so hard his knuckles turned white and the sharp edges of the rocks cut the rough texture of his skin. Sanosuke barely noticed. Out of his anger, he pounded his fist into the ground, leaving behind only dust as the result of his strongest attack. That is what he was going to do to Tetsu once he got the chance and that was what Sanosuke knew he deserved. No human being alive could have even thought about hurting someone like Megumi, who was the leading female doctor in all of Japan, not even capable of hurting a fly. She was as gentle as a lamb and as caring to every person that showed her the same respect, even those who to those who didn't. Whoever had the audacity to hurt Megumi Takani, couldn't have been human. No, the person had to be a monster.

Stomping away from the wide-ranging hole he had left in the middle of the yard, ignoring Kaoru's lectures that he would have to fix it later, Sanosuke left the dojo with heavy strides and a fury so great even the Devil himself would have cowered in fear. He slammed the dojo's door shut behind him with a loud bang and he kept his head lowered, but his determination soaring high as he headed towards the clinic, every intention to pummel Tetsu into the ground. With his mind so distracted with his repugnance, Sanosuke didn't even realize someone walking toward him heading in the opposite direction until they collided.

"Watch it!" Sanosuke snapped at the man, but immediately wiped the scowl off his face once he saw his recognized him. The man was the other half of the only two surviving members of the rebel group called the Sekihoutai, Sanosuke's best friend since childhood, and the most famous artist in all of Tokyo, mainly known for drawing pictures of the leading soldiers and hitokiris during the Revolution; Tsunan.Tsukioka. "Katsu? Is that you?"

"Sano, you big idiot! I heard from a couple of the guys that you were back, but I had to go see it for myself!" Katsu said, a huge grin on his face as he brushed the dirt off his jacket where they had bumped shoulders, "Where've you been all this time?"

"Look, Katsu, it's great seeing you again and all, but I gotta..." Sanosuke started, but Katsu's next statement stopped the rest of his sentence dead in it's tracks.

"Ryo's dead, Sano," Katsu said, interrupting Sanosuke's excuse to leave and he watched his jaw drop to the floor, "They killed him the day after you left... They said he aided in your escape and that he shot about ten police officers trying to help you..."

Sanosuke balled his hands into fists, gritting his teeth so tight together he was sure he heard them crack. His entire reason for even going to the magistrate's house that night six years ago was to protect Ryo from the Meiji government and their so-called ways of justice, but it had all turned out to be an entirely useless effort. What made him even more upset was that in his endeavor of helping Ryo out of trouble, Ryo had gotten right back into the line of danger on Sanosuke's behalf.

"How did they...?" Sanosuke asked, trailing off, not even able to finish his own sentence as his tongue struggled and tripped over the word 'kill.'

"Took him out into an open rice field and shot him. Just like that," Katsu replied with the same anger Sanosuke felt was about to burst from his body, "they didn't even give him the option of court... His family didn't stand a chance. Without Ryo there to care for them, the food for his baby never got there and the medicine for his wife never made it through. His newborn daughter died a few days later from starvation and his wife died from the grief."

"Those... bastards..." Sanosuke breathed, the flames in his eyes glowing brighter as his hate for the government increased with his rage, "they just.. they killed an innocent family..."

"I can see why you left. Any place'd be better than under their control. Come on, Sano, let's get you someplace where you can calm down," Katsu suggested, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, "my place is just around the corner. You should sit down and I'll catch you up on what's happened here since you left."

Reluctantly, Sanosuke let his friend lead him away from the middle of the streets, his mind racing with memories of seeing Captain Sagara's head placed on a mount like a trophy and he imagined it right next to Ryo's and the severed heads of Ryo's family. Sanosuke shut his eyes, trying to shake away the horrible images, but the intense burning from his darkened pupils scorched his eyelids and they flew open once again. 

This was his life. Whatever help he tried to offer always backfired, whipping back with the speed of lightning, taking out whatever got in it's way, and this time it was Ryo... Sanosuke still remembered how he had tried to help Captain Sagara, lugging the larger man on his back as he tried to lead him to safety, but his hero had been shot down by the soldiers of the government as he shielded Sanosuke from the power of their guns and tossed him over into the river. Captain Sagara had given up his life so Sanosuke's could be spared, taking the punishment with his all and giving Sanosuke nothing. The same fate had happened to Ryo and Sanosuke found himself fighting back the urge to destroy anything that dared to get in his path. He blinked back angry tears, letting only a few escape his proud penitentiary, but they evaporated into the air from the enraged heat from his chocolate brown eyes. 

Everyone was always trying to help him, giving him only a few more years left to his life span, not accepting his help when he tried to return the favor. Sano wasn't afraid of death; he was willing to take on whatever anyone threw at him if it at all concerned his beliefs. He wasn't afraid of stepping over a few obstacles, he wasn't afraid of getting himself killed, or immensely hurt, but he was afraid of losing the ones dear to him. It had happened before and it had happened again, this time, without him even knowing it.

Katsu sat him down at the table of his apartment, studying his friend cautiously, waiting for him to say something. He knew Sanosuke since childhood, had always considered him his best friend, but now, sitting there in complete silence with unreadable blackened eyes, Katsu was starting to think he had invited a stranger into his house. Katsu cleared his throat, grabbing Sano's attention with the small sound and he handed him a beige colored envelope.

Sanosuke looked at the envelope in front of him, the edges practically bursting with it's contents as it was filled with about three trees worth of papers. He frowned slightly and looked up at his friend for an explanation, but Katsu only nodded his head toward the package, indicating that he was supposed to look at what was inside. Slowly, Sanosuke slipped out the bundle of papers, laying them out in front of him across the hard wood table, and he examined each and every one of the newspaper articles that lay before him.

"Ever since you left there were all these stories in the papers about you," Katsu told him as Sanosuke looked over the papers in front of him, "I saved them all. I got into a little mess when the police chief asked me to write about you in my newspapers, but I refused. I haven't written any articles since."

"Why didn't you write about me?" Sanosuke asked, pausing from his examining of the first newspaper and he looked up over it's heading, "Didn't have enough info?"

"No, it's because I don't believe you killed Hideki Kajima," Katsu stated, his arms folding across his chest to show Sano how serious he was, "and I didn't want to be the source telling other people that you did. People can think what they want, but I'm not gonna be the one encouraging anything."

"Thanks, Katsu," Sanosuke said, smiling up at his friend as he handed him a cup of tea, "I appreciate.... Whoa, hang on a second!" His smile dropped plainly off his face as Sanosuke fixated his eyes on an article in front of him on the table, grabbing at it with one quick swipe, and he brought it up to his face to get a better look at it. His chocolate brown eyes widened, no longer engulfed with angry flames, but now with an entirely new perceptive that Katsu could only say was complete and utter consternation. 

"Sanosuke?" Katsu asked curiously as he stood up from his seat and walked over to where his friend sat on the other end of the table, "What is it? What's the matter?"

"Who is this?!" Sanosuke demanded, pressing his index finger hard into a picture of someone on the article, practically poking a hole right through the delicate paper, "This man! Who is this?!"

Katsu carefully took the paper from Sanosuke's shaking hands, holding it up to his face to take a better look at the person's profile and he gave Sanosuke a confused expression as if to say, 'What in the world is going on with you?' Sanosuke's eyes only continued to dart back and forth, searching over his friend's face for a response, and he held back from choking the answer out of him as sirens ran in frantic circles in his head.

"This is the magistrate's son," Katsu explained, still confused at Sanosuke's strange reaction to the photo, but he continued, "his name is Kurotara Kajima. He used to live here in Tokyo about six years ago, but he left after his father's death."

"Hideki Kajima's son... That's the guy the police thought I killed... What else does the article say?" Sanosuke asked, the bewildered look growing more intense and Katsu frowned again, still puzzled at his strange actions to seeing Hideki Kajima's son's picture. At Katsu's hesitant pause, Sanosuke slammed his fist down onto the table, startling the man out of his trance and making him jump up in surprise. Sanosuke looked up at him from his seat, all patience smoldered from the fright he secretly held in his heart. "Tell me what the hell the rest of the article says!!!" 

"It says that Kurotara left Tokyo a few weeks after Hideki's death and you escaped from the city. After he inherited the money his father had left him, he ventured over to Aizu," Katsu continued, his confusion now replaced with concern as he watched Sanosuke's eyes widen enough to pop out of their sockets, but he continued on with the reading the paper, "Since leaving Tokyo for Aizu, Kurotara was never seen again... That's all the article says. Sano, what is the meaning of this? What's going on with you?"

"Katsu, don't ask questions, okay? If you want to help me, find all the articles on this Kurotara guy that you can find and give them to me," Sanosuke said, his voice less threatening as he pleaded with his friend with the cool brown color of his eyes, "Please, Katsu, just try and find all that you can on him as fast as possible. You've got to have some kind of information on him in some of these articles if he's the magistrate's son. I don't have time to explain now, just do as I say and I'll explain it all later. Right now, I don't have the time!"

Katsu nodded in agreement. This was obviously a very serious matter because if it was otherwise, he wouldn't have been so frantic. Katsu had never before been able to say no to any proposal Sano had ever requested him to do, whether it be lending him his whole wallet, giving him a place to stay, or asking him for information, either way Katsu had never refused. And he wasn't about to start now. 

Hurriedly, he rushed over to his room, pulling out all the newspapers he had stashed in his closet beside his many boxes of explosives and he dragged them all back to where Sanosuke was now frantically looking over the other papers already laid out on the table. Looking up from the article he had been reading at Katsu's approach, Sanosuke muttered a small 'thank you' before lunging at the stash of newspapers. Katsu, of course, helped him with his search on Kurotara Kajima, running his index finger down the writing and scanning his eyes over the words until he spotted the man's name.

"Here's one!" Katsu exclaimed, pulling it out from underneath a pile of dust and he quickly blew it off. Silently, he read the first few lines to himself and Sanosuke watched him frown and his eyebrows creased together.

"What?!" Sanosuke demanded, slamming his fist down again onto the table, "What does it say?!" 

"It's... part of the obituaries..." Katsu whispered and his eyes widened as he read the rest of it out loud, "It says here that Mr. Kurotara Kajima was once engaged to Miss Satomi Heihachi about seven years ago. His father, the magistrate, Hideki Kajima, didn't support his son's decision on a future wife however because she was the daughter of one of the leading members of the..." Katsu trailed off, his eyes scanning over the last word to make sure he was reading it right. While he did this, Sanosuke was dying from the anticipation.

"What, god damn it?!" Sanosuke demanded, rotating his hand in circles to indicate for him to go on, "He didn't support his son's choice for his future wife because she was the daughter of one of the leading members of the... what? Fill in the blank here, Katsu!"

"The Sekihoutai..." Katsu finished, his eyes still wide, but he quickly shook his head to clear up his thoughts so he could continue reading aloud the rest of the article, "Miss Satomi Heihachi's father was Tsukano Tanaka, Souzou Sagara's... heir... Uh... Miss Heihachi was very supportive of the Sekihoutai group because of her father's position in it's ardor and she was against the government for what they had done to end her father's group. Because of this and what the magistrate said that the girl offended him by, the magistrate sentenced the girl to death for defying his role as a government official and she was thrown into a jail cell to await her death on January 4th, only a few weeks before her marriage to Kurotara was going to take place. Kurotara tried to persuade his father that she was not defying the government or him, but Hideki Kajima would not accept her into the family name, saying that she would soil their reputation with her disobedient behavior. The night before Satomi was going to be hung, she killed herself. Kurotara found her body in the morning with her hands gripping a packet of the drug, opium, that she had taken the night before. He had tried to save her, but it was already too late... Sano, this was dated about a year before Kurotara disappeared to Aizu..."

Sanosuke stayed silent for a few moments, letting the new found knowledge soak into his brain as he formed it all into complete sentences in his mind. He had known Tsukano Takana, Miss Heihachi's father. 'Tsukano was that little nineteen year old boy that was always tagging along behind Captain Sagara all the time,' Sano thought, remembering the young man Souzou had named as his heir, the picture of his face appearing before Sanosuke's mind. 

He remembered when he was little, following after his Captain along side Tsukano and Katsu, talking with them as they traveled all over Japan with the rest of the Sekihoutai. Sanosuke recalled the day he and Katsu found Tsukano huddled over a tiny picture of his family while he leaned against a tiny tree as he rested from the day's travel. Katsu and he hadn't really thought about Tsukano having a family, but Sano remembered all too well how desperately Tsukano had clung to the photo after being shot by one of the police the night the Sekihoutai were brutally murdered and betrayed. 

He had run over to him, trying to help the dying man up, but Tsukano had only pushed Sanosuke away, telling him to leave him there. Sanosuke had only persisted in trying to help, but he left after Tsukano had died before him, his hands cradling the tiny photo of his wife and young daughter and with his last ounce of strength, Tsukano had kissed the picture softly with his lips before his entire body went limp. The photo had fluttered to the ground, floating away in the thin river of it's owner's blood.

  
  


"I just need to know one thing..." Sanosuke said silently, his heart still racing as it was the night the Sekihoutai came to meet it's end and he looked up to see that the same worried expression that he wore on his face, was plastered on Katsu's, "What is the color of Kurotara Kajima's eyes?"

"His eyes?" Katsu asked curiously, not knowing how the color of the magistrate's son's eyes had anything to do with the whole situation, but he leaned closer to the picture after seeing the serious look on Sanosuke's face that Katsu had only seen when he knew it mattered most. He peered closer at the photo in the middle of the article, scanning his eyes over the image of Kurotara and Satomi together in front of a cherry blossom tree and he squinted his eyes to focus on Kurotara's eye color. Pulling away, Katsu scratched his head in confusion and looked back at Sanosuke, who's face was overridden with immense expectation. "Well, it looks like they're two different colors. Like, one is black and one is white..." Katsu replied with a sheepish grin, "but I don't see how the guy's eye color has anything to do with.... Sano, where are you going?!"

"Thanks a lot, Katsu," Sanosuke said as he quickly stood up from his seat, grabbed the newspaper articles that held the important information he needed and ran out the door, "I owe you one! I appreciate all this! I'll just borrow these, okay? I'll explain everything later!" 

"Sano, wait! Hang on a second!" Katsu called after him, but the echo of his voice never reached Sanosuke's quick retreating figure as he ran out into the crowds in the street, the kanji sign of 'wicked' slowly losing it's shape as he got farther and farther out into the distance, papers flying out behind him. Still in his doorway, Katsu shrugged. "That big turd stole my papers..."

  
  


Sanosuke gritted his teeth as he ran, images of the last night the Sekihoutai had ever lived embedded into his brain. The picture of Tsukano kissing the photo of his family hit every part of him like a powerful stone to delicate flesh as Sanosuke wished with all he had within him that that wouldn't be Megumi lying on the ground with the rivers of blood surrounding her fragile body in Tsukano's place. Sanosuke needed to make it in time to the dojo, where she had promised to meet them all for dinner at the Akabeko and he was going to help her once and for all, whether she accepted it willingly or not. Now, with knowledge of just who exactly Tetsu really was, he was not going to let Kurotara Kajima hurt her anymore than he already had. And Sanosuke swore this promise on Tsukano's, Ryo's, and Captain Sagara's graves.

  
  


A/N: Ooh! Plot twists! But that's not all, there's more surprises coming up so if you're confused now, you better e-mail me or leave a review with your e-mail and I'll fill you in. Thanx! 


	9. Megumi's Instincts

Chapter 8:

"Megumi's Instincts"  
  


Late. They were going to be late and Megumi knew it. In about an hour, she and Suzuki were going to meet up with everyone at the dojo and then head over to the Akabeko for dinner, but she was here, still seated at her desk at the clinic, organizing some medical papers for some of the patients she saw earlier that day. 

As expected, her patients had all asked her about her injuries and to everyone, she had given them the same excuse. 'I slipped in the tub a few days ago,' she always told them and they would all nod their heads like a bunch of robots, too scared to tell her to her face that they knew she was lying. 

It angered her that they couldn't stand up to her, that they couldn't tell her exactly what was running through their heads, that they were all exactly the same. She wanted somebody to demand that she tell them the truth, to force her into telling them all about Tetsu, then she could rid herself of the heavy weight atop her shoulders that she was obliged to carry for God knows how long. Sanosuke had come close to doing just that and she, like an idiot, had almost given in. But Megumi had caught herself at the last minute, finding her logical reason for not telling anyone, remembering the horrible threat that Tetsu had promised he would do to her son. But she wanted to tell him, so much that it hurt.

Megumi shook her head. She didn't want to think about that. Not now, not ever, but somehow, it was always the first thing that happened to enter her mind every second of every day. It didn't help that she couldn't tell anyone what was on her mind and slowly, ever so slowly, it was driving her mad. 

What was happening to her? She used to be so strong, will-powered, brave, independent, and spirited, but now she was what she had feared she would become again. She was a woman afraid of a man. After her time at Kanryu's mansion, Megumi had become deathly afraid of men, and who could blame her? All men that worked for him, or worse, were him, didn't care whether she lived or died, whether she was well or sick; they didn't give a damn about her. Only as much as Kanryu would pay to take care of her. If you could even call it care. Once being saved from that wicked man's wrath and the treachery of opium, Megumi had promised herself that she would never become that frightened woman again and so, she had put up barriers, summed up her courage and learned to look people straight in the eye. Now, with even the tiniest thought of Tetsu, Megumi's eyes would grow weary and wide and they would dart from side to side to see if he was around to hurt her again.

'Why? Why is this happening to me....?' Megumi thought to herself. She sniffled, wiping the back of her hand against her nose, and she propped her elbows down onto the table and dropped her head down into her hands. She covered her eyes, letting the clear drops of tears run down her cheeks. Abruptly, frustrated with herself for crying yet again, Megumi brushed away the tears, knocking over the prodigious stack of papers she had just finished organizing and they all fluttered to the floor. 

Megumi cursed aloud for her wasted effort at arranging them and she kneeled down to the ground to pick them up, mumbling under her breath some more about her clumsiness and lack of attention. Picking up about a dozen papers at a time, she began placing them back onto her desk, trying her best to keep it all as neat as possible when one particular paper caught her eye.

Curious, Megumi dropped the small pile of medical files she had in her hand and bent down to pick up the off-white colored composition by her feet. Lifting it up to her face, her hand immediately flew to cover her mouth, a small gasp finding it's way between the cracks of her fingers as she read the top line of the paper. It read:

Hideki Kajima's Will

'The magistrate's will...' Megumi thought to herself, her bruised hand still covering her open mouth, 'but what is it doing here? It wasn't here before... It's not mine and it's certainly not Suzuki's... Tetsu sometimes leaves some of his things here in my office but, what would he be doing with Hideki Kajima's will?'

The will was addressed to Hideki Kajima's son, Kurotara Kajima, leaving him all the money the judge owned as well as all his possessions. Reading on, Megumi found a tiny message at the bottom written by the magistrate himself to his son. 

"It's an apology letter..." Megumi gasped and she read aloud the entire message as if reading it silently would lessen her chances of understanding it, "Dear Kurotara, I know you must hate me for what I have done and I find myself hating me as well. I know that you will find a good wife, one better than the former girl. Take with you all of my belongings as a favor to me. If you do not wish to accept these things, then please accept my apologies. I am sorry for not being understanding of your love for Satomi and I am sorry for not being the father you wish you had. I hope that in time, you might forgive me for my stupidity and I hope that someday, you might be proud to say that Hideki Kajima was your father..." 

Megumi finished reading the letter, feeling extremely guilty for having seen such a personal message meant only for the judge's son to see, but she still couldn't help but wonder how Tetsu got a hold of it. 

Suddenly, the sun rays coming in from the window caught onto something shiny and a tiny flash of silver grabbed Megumi's attention on the floor. Frowning to herself, she leisurely reached for the small page that displayed a small stamp of glitter in the upper right hand corner. Puzzled again as to what in the world such strange articles were doing in her clinic, Megumi furrowed her eyebrows, wincing a bit from the pain from her still swollen face at the slight movement, and she closed her eyes until the pain receded. When it was calm enough for her to move, she opened her eyes again and read the first few lines of the paper before her heart nearly jumped into her throat.

It was an official essay of configuration for a false identity and the names at the top of the paper read: Tetsu Nakano, formally known as Kurotara Kajima. 

"Oh my God...." Megumi murmured as she felt all the feeling in her body go numb and she dropped the small paper to the floor to allow her hand to fly to her chest, feeling the fast pace of her pumping heart. 

She took no notice to the other papers scattered along the floor as she got up from where she once kneeled on the ground, her legs barely able to keep her upright as she struggled to gain control over her body and mind. But too much was going on within her and her body refused to respond to her brain, or whatever was left of it besides the frantic scrambles of the words she had just read. 

"Find anything interesting, Megumi?" Tetsu asked from behind her, his presence never even sensed due to her distraction and she whirled around to face him, her hair twirling through the air like a spiraling snail shell. Her eyes widened when she saw him, her mind going completely blank for only a few brief seconds before she bolted out of the room. But Tetsu was quick to react and he easily caught up with her in the kitchen, her back pressing up against the stove. Her unsteady breathing could be heard all the way to where Tetsu was now standing in the kitchen doorway. 

Megumi's eyes darted from left to right, searching for some kind of escape route, but she found none. Her heart beat was racing at a million miles a minute as she reminisced about just what he did to her the last time they were here. Her only way out of the clinic was through the front door and right now, Tetsu was blocking it's path. 

Tetsu, or whoever he was, saw the intense fright in her cinnamon eyes, now overridden with dilated pupils that wandered around the entire room in search of help, and he chuckled to himself, reveling in the fact that she was mortally petrified of him and he watched how her chest heaved hastily up and down from her sheer panicked breaths.

"Who... who are you?" Megumi asked after finally finding her voice and her hands gripped the front of the counter behind her as she anticipated what he would say. 

"You thought you knew, didn't you?" Tetsu asked with a malevolent grin, "Hah! You stupid woman! You thought I was Tetsu Nakano, one of the top business men in Aizu, one of the many suitors of Miss Megumi Takani, you. The one man who asked for your hand in marriage because he was so hopelessly in love with you. I am none of those things, Sweetheart, and I never have been. I am Kurotara Kajima, the son of Hideki Kajima. Also I am proud to say that I have earned the title of his killer as well..." 

Megumi's grip tightened on the edge of the counter, her still-bruised hands aching at the strong grasp, but she paid no attention to it, only to the murderer in front of her. She felt herself stiffen to stone at that moment, her brain filling with loud warning sirens at the sound of the word, 'killer.' Megumi swallowed back the last bit of saliva she had left in her mouth, leaving her entire throat parched and dry, her palms sweaty and shaking. 'He killed his own father. He's the one that killed the magistrate... He's the one that made Sanosuke leave Japan...' Megumi thought. 

Without even a second thought of the consequence, her hand sailed backwards, grabbing hold of the handle of a nearby kitchen knife and she whipped it around, pointing the end towards Tetsu's throat, her eyes narrowed and glowing with the high spirit that had been put on hold until that very moment.

"Get the fuck out of my house!" Megumi demanded, the sharp point of the knife directed straight at the base of Kurotara's neck and she watched his black and white eyes widen in surprise to her automatic self-defense mechanism, "Now!" 

"Mommy... How long was I asleep?" Suzuki asked groggily as he walked into the kitchen from behind his mother, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand to try and fully awaken himself, completely unaware of the danger he had just placed himself in.

"Suzuki! Get out of here!" Megumi shouted in surprise as she quickly turned away from Tetsu to warn her son, but as she was distracted, Tetsu lost no time in snatching the knife out of her hands and capturing her in a headlock. Within a few mere seconds, the tables had quickly been turned around and he now had the upper hand as he pointed the knife at her own throat.

Suzuki's eyes immediately lost their drowsy condition and they widened in fright as he watched his mother being held at the point of the kitchen knife, the reality of what he had just walked in on suddenly crashing up on him like the waves of the ocean upon a beach's shore. He instantaneously ran forward to help his mother, but Tetsu only pressed the knife deeper into the base of her throat, drawing out a tiny stream of blood.

"MOM!" Suzuki cried, but paused in his rush as he saw the blood that escaped from her neck and drizzled down the long silver blade of the kitchen knife. Suddenly, his fear was replaced with anger as his hands balled up into fists, his rich brown eyes burning with rage as he stared his mother's captor in the eye. 

"Let her go!" Suzuki demanded, pulling out his wooden bokken from behind his back and he readied it in front of him, his stance preparing him to strike at any given moment, but Tetsu only laughed in his face.

"You're as pitiful as your mother," Tetsu taunted, making Suzuki grind his teeth together at the insult, "Face the facts, you little runt, I'm the one with the dangerous weapon here and you have a tiny little stick. What do you expect to do with that little toy of yours?"

"The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is used to protect the ones you care about and for the people that need protecting," Suzuki said, his voice never wavering as his fear for his mother's life out-weighed his fear for his own, "if I lose, I am not only letting down myself, but also the person that I am trying to protect. That is what the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu teaches it's students."

"You're a brave kid, I'll give you that much, but bravery doesn't take you far," Tetsu warned, his voice teasing and his black and white eyes gleaming with an evil gold tint, "Drop the weapon, brat. I don't think you want to have your selfish act of trying to play hero be the reason I jam this knife into your mom's neck. Drop it, now!"

Suzuki growled under his breath. He knew he was right. What chance did a five year old with so little sword training have against a full grown man with a knife? Suzuki didn't even want to think of the answer. Obediently, Suzuki dropped his bokken to the floor, feeling like the biggest failure in the world for letting his mother down. The one chance he had to show her just how strong his training had made him had been ruined and outdone. More than anything, Suzuki wanted to pick his wooden sword back up and beat Tetsu into another lifetime, but in the case of his mother as his hostage, Suzuki had no choice but to do as he said. Luck was obviously not on his side. If it weren't for his arrival, his mother would still be safe...

Suzuki looked up at Megumi with sorrowful eyes, knowing that it was his duty as the man of the house to protect her with everything he had, and he had now failed her when she needed it most. But in making eye contact with his mother, he saw that she was trying to mouth something to him. Reading her unspoken words through the movement of her lips, he knew what she was going to do and whether he liked it or not, Megumi was going to try and save him. 

'No,' Suzuki shook his head at her, but Megumi was a stubborn woman and as Suzuki felt it was his job to protect her, her obligation as a mother was to do the same for him. 

While Tetsu was still in his own triumphant little world, Megumi pulled her elbow up and rammed it back down into Tetsu's ribs, startling him and causing him to drop the knife to the floor so he could take hold of his throbbing abdomen. 

Quickly, Megumi kicked the kitchen knife across the tile floor as she saw Tetsu reaching for it after he had recovered from his surprise and as the injured man struggled to crawl across the floor to the knife at the other end of the room, Megumi turned to her son with fearful eyes.

"Run, Suzuki!" she cried as Tetsu tackled her down to the ground, his eyes gleaming with the same intense gold they had the night he had taken advantage of her body as he drew the knife towards her neck again. Megumi desperately struggled against the grown man's strength as she held onto the blade with her bare hands to keep it away from herself. 

"You stupid bitch!" Tetsu shouted at her, struggling against her kicking at his stomach and battling against her to shove the sharp dagger into her throat. The trails of blood from her bare hands coursed down her wrists as Megumi strained against his strength, grunting and pushing upward with the knife to try and get it away from her.

"Mom!" Suzuki shouted and he ran forward, but Tetsu only kicked him away with his free leg. Not letting himself be taken down so easily, Suzuki shot back up from where he had slid across the tile and he grabbed his wooden bokken off the floor, crashing it down onto Tetsu's head with all his might. The older man immediately rolled off Megumi with a loud groan. 

"Get off her!" Suzuki screamed and he quickly took his mother's bloody hand, leading her out towards the front door to escape, "Come on, Mom! We needa get outta here!"

Suzuki pulled his frightened mother out into the front yard, practically lugging her out with her entire body weight leaning against his before Tetsu caught up with them again. His nostrils flared as he grabbed Megumi by her leg, the knife no longer in his hands as he pulled her back down to the ground and she let out a startled cry. 

Before Tetsu could strike her, Megumi scraped her long nails across his face, drawing thin strips of crimson blood from his cheeks and they flowed down to his chin. Automatically, Tetsu/ Kurotara grabbed at his face in agony. Turning her head away from his, Megumi craned her neck to look back and up at her son who stood completely still in front of them, paralyzed with shock.

"Get out of here, Suzuki!" Megumi cried as she struggled against Tetsu's attempts to strangle her and she strained under the man's weight, "Suzuki, run! Run and get help! Get out of here! Suzuki, get to the dojo!"

Without a word, Suzuki nodded to his mother like an obedient servant and ran out of the yard as fast as his legs could carry him. 'Find someone, Suzuki....' Megumi prayed, her hands gripping Tetsu's wrists as she tried pushing them away from her throat, 'Find help...'

"You are going to pay for that!" Tetsu spat at her, his strength increasing with his anger as he was finally able to pin her arms behind her back to keep her from fighting him, "You of all people should know how useless it is to try and win! That son of yours is lucky he got away this time, Megumi, but don't think he'll miss out on death the second time around!"

"You leave Suzuki alone, you sick bastard!" Megumi barked at him, her eyes no longer darting from side to side and she was finally able to find her inner bravery and she looked him straight in the eye, "I swear to God, if you so much as harm a hair on my child's head, I'll kill you!"

"You really don't get it, do you, Sweetheart?" Tetsu asked with an evil chuckle, pausing in his endeavor to wring her neck as he pined her down, "It hurts to lose someone dear to you, doesn't it? It tears you apart! You think you know all about pain, but you have no idea!"

"What are you talking about?!" Megumi demanded as she twisted her arms from behind her to try and escape his tight grasp, but Tetsu held fast.

"You think I should feel sorry for you, don't you?!" Tetsu screamed, his voice rising in volume as he tightened his grip on her wrists, pulling them farther behind her back and she strained under the pressure, "I could never feel pity for someone like you. You despise me for being a murderer, but you, Megumi Takani, have killed more than I ever could have with your drugs! You killed Satomi! The only one I could ever give my heart to! You gave her that damn opium of yours and she died and I died with her! I had finally been able to convince my father to set her free when I found her dead in her cell with the opium you gave her! When I found you in Aizu, you were the object of every man's affections, but you were everything I ever hated in my entire life! After killing my father for sentencing Satomi to death, it was only a great coincidence that your fiancé happened to get into an argument with him earlier that evening, making him the top suspect for my father's murder. I'm not sure who I hate more, my father or you!"

"Then why did you propose to me?!" Megumi demanded, her voice becoming less and less powerful as her strength was finally giving out and exhaustion overwhelmed her body, "Knowing that I was the one that made the opium to kill your old wife-to-be. Why did you want to marry me?"

"Want to marry you? Don't be so dense! You think I would want the name Kajima as mine forever?!" Tetsu shouted, his black and white eyes boring into her like a collision of comet to Earth, "Marrying you would have given me the legal name of Tetsu Takani and given me full possession of your belongings after your 'unexpected' death. Marrying you and having my way with your body, taking your name as my own, and strangling you the night of our wedding would be like killing three birds with one stone. And like a fool, you never saw it coming..."

"So that's it," Megumi spat, her eyes narrowing at the man who held her captive, "you wanted to kill me for making the opium Satomi took and in the mean time, you wanted to marry me, take advantage of me, and rid yourself of your father's last name and take mine." At Tetsu's wicked grin and nod, Megumi shook her head, pulling it back and then hawked spit in his face.

"You're disgusting..." she breathed as he wiped her saliva off his still-bleeding face with the back of his hand and he struck her, causing her head to fly backwards from the rough collision.

"It is you who is disgusting!" Tetsu shrieked at her, taking no pity on her already beaten face as he added yet another blow to her cheek, "You actually thought that I would spare your son if you never told anyone about that night, didn't you?! You fool! After I take the liberty of strangling you, I'm still gonna enjoy drowning that little boy in the river as planned before." Seeing Megumi's eyes widen at his last statement, Tetsu snickered. "You're dumber than I thought... So, Megumi, tell me, how does it feel to have everything you ever cared about taken away from you? Tell me how much it hurts!"

"I hate you..." Megumi murmured, her chest heaving up and down because of her lack of breath as she glared at Tetsu with blackened eyes, "You are the most vile, disgusting, horrible monster that ever walked the Earth! You are the reason Suzuki was denied his father, you are the reason Kenshin had to live without his best friend, you are the reason Yahiko never learned what true life was all about, you are the reason Kaoru never got the chance to share her thoughts with one of her closest companions, and you are the reason I was denied the true love of my life that could never be replaced! You denied me the warmth in my heart that I could never survive without! Only the thought that Sanosuke might still be out there in the world kept me alive! It's your fault that Sanosuke had to leave Japan and all the people that cared about him most and it's your fault I spent six long years crying! And for that, I could never forgive you...!"  
  


'Mom....' Suzuki thought as he ran through the busy streets of Tokyo, his feet leading him automatically to the dojo where he knew he could find his friends, 'Don't die, Mommy... Please don't die...'

As soon as the entrance of the dojo came into view, Suzuki's speed increased and he thrust the door open with one heavy shove and he ran inside, his shoes thumping against the hard gray stones of the ground. His eyes searched frantically for any sign of human life and his ears perked up to listen for any sounds of his friends' voices, but the only noise in the entire dojo property was the soft whistling of the evening wind and the loud beating of Suzuki's heart that threatened to erupt from his chest.

He was not going to give up. Taking in a deep breath, Suzuki ran around the house, not even bothering to take off his shoes as he scurried inside the dojo, opening and closing every door he saw as he searched for anyone who could help him. But he found no one inside.

"Auntie Kaoru! Uncle Kenshin! Uncle Yahiko!" Suzuki hollered out into every room he passed, praying for some kind of response, but he only received the echo of his own voice coming back to him as the walls' silent answer. His shoulders sagged dejectedly and tears streamed down his face, his hope of finding anyone to help him draining from his mind. With as much energy as he could conjure up from his exhausted body, Suzuki ran back outside to check again, yelling at the top of his lungs. 

"Help! Auntie Kaoru! Uncle Kenshin! Uncle Yahiko!" Suzuki screamed as he ran from the back of the dojo to the front, his tears blurring his vision as they flowed down his cheeks, dripping off the edge of his chin as he ran, "Please! Anybody! Where are you guys?!" 

Suzuki continued to run about the dojo, his tears blinding him from seeing someone coming toward him in the opposite direction with a concerned expression on his face.

"Whoa, whoa, Suzuki... " Sanosuke said as he grabbed the small boy by his shoulders, stopping him from practically knocking him over in his frantic rampage around the house, "What are you running around the house like a maniac for? Is everything alright?"

"Mr. Sagara!" Suzuki exclaimed and he quickly grabbed the older man's hand, pulling him out towards the exit with wide frightened eyes, "Please! You've gotta help! He's got her! He's gonna kill her if we don't get there in time! I tried to find everyone else, but they're not here! Please, Mr. Sagara, you gotta save her!"

"Okay, Suzuki, calm down..." Sanosuke soothed, putting his hands up to calm his son, not quite understanding the importance of the situation as he tried to sort out everything Suzuki was trying to tell him, "What are you talking about? Save who?"

"Mommy!" Suzuki cried, tugging more at Sanosuke's arm, never once giving himself time to let out his held breath, "You gotta save Mommy! He's got her at the clinic, Mr. Sagara! Please! You gotta help her, you just gotta! You're the only one that can save her! I don't want Mommy to die! Please, I'm begging you! You gotta save her!"

"Megumi..." Sanosuke whispered under his breath and without even a second thought, he took off towards the clinic, Suzuki trailing behind with the same angst expression on his face that his father had on his. 

He had to make it, he just had to. Who knows what would happen if he didn't... Only God could tell.  
  


A/N: Okay, just in case you didn't catch that, Kurotara Kajima and Tetsu Nakano are the same guy. I think that's all but if there's anything else you're confused about, just e-mail me. As usual, reviews are welcome!


	10. Resisting Indignation

Chapter 9:

"Resisting Indignation"  
  


She didn't care anymore, she just didn't. Suzuki was safe now and that's all that mattered, for as long as she was alive, she wasn't going to let anything happen to him. Tetsu could take her very life if he so pleased and she would die happy as long as she knew Suzuki was out of harm's way. Everyone at the dojo: Kenshin, Kaoru, Yahiko, Sanosuke; they would protect him, probably even do a better job of it than she had. It was her own foolishness that Suzuki came so close to being killed. She had already let Tetsu get away with hurting him once, she wouldn't let it happen again. But how could she defend her son, when she barely had enough strength to keep herself breathing...?

For now it was over, Megumi figured Kurotara had gotten tired of abusing her mangled body as she felt through the dull numbness that was her arms, him picking her up. His hands were rough and callused, most likely from the high endurance they took from smacking her around all afternoon. Tetsu dragged her non-too-kindly back into the clinic, her limp legs trailing behind her like excess baggage, only one arm raised up as a handle for Tetsu to grip on. She couldn't fight him anymore, she couldn't even feel her body. Megumi felt as if she were torn between both worlds of heaven and earth, unsure if she was dead or alive, if she was really there at all. 

Tetsu's hands somehow still encased enough energy to bring her all the way inside, just enough to throw her half-conscious form into her desk chair, and he left her there for a moment, leaving the room to retrieve something from somewhere else in the clinic. Megumi could only hope it was something sharp and pointy, anything that would end her life quickly, but, being that Tetsu wasn't one to let her die kindly, it was probably not anything less of a torture weapon.

Her eyes were drooping, along with the rest of her as she lay pitifully in the chair he had tossed her in, her arms hanging down the sides of the chair's legs, her stiff fingers barely reaching down to the tatami mat below. 

She was so tired, so dreadfully tired. Nothing in the world could have given her the energy to get up and run out the front door; it was useless. Suzuki was gone, most likely being comforted by one of their friends at the dojo, probably too scared and confused to ask for help. 

No one was coming back for her... 

Tetsu came back, his heavy footsteps startling Megumi out of her train of thought with each loud thud it brought upon the ground; she was too numb to be scared. Just opening her eyes wasted away the last bit of her energy and she gazed up at her fiancé, but his face remained unreadable to her as it was blank and expressionless. She watched as he bent over to the chair she sat in and she heard a loud snipping sound of something hard. Turning her head to the side, her breathing coming in short gasps through her open mouth, she tried to speak. But nothing came out but a soft gurgle from her throat. Tetsu didn't even look up, he seemed too preoccupied with what he was doing.

That's when she felt it, the coarse material wrapping about her wrists like a snake and she felt Tetsu straining to tie the rope tighter above her hands, almost cutting off the blood flow from her arms. She wanted to wriggle free, to kick him with her free legs, but he knew and she knew, she couldn't do it. She had lost all feeling of her body long ago, after the unaccountable blows to her stomach, her arms, her legs, everywhere; Megumi had no chance of escaping on her own and there was obviously no way that Tetsu was going to set her free willingly. 

"What are you going to do with me?" Megumi was able to murmur through chapped lips and a hoarse throat, her breathing becoming more labored from the amount she used to employ her voice, and she wheezed out more pathetic breaths.

"What am I going to do to you, Sweetheart?" Kurotara repeated, taunting her with the use of the loving nickname he had given her and he squeezed the ropes tighter around her wrists, to the point that her skin had been scratched raw and small specks of blood appeared leaking from the rope's strings. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I am going to leave you here to die. I am going to make you feel what I felt that night when I found Satomi dead on the floor of her jail cell. Then you will know what it feels like to be helpless and pathetic..."

"Do what you want with me, I don't care anymore," Megumi whispered, hardly audible to Tetsu's ears, and she drowsily lifted her head up to meet his one black eye and one white with her caramel ones. She may not have any strength in her body, but she had strength in her mind and she was going to make sure he knew that. "Kill me if that's what you want, whatever makes you feel better about your old wife-to-be's death. But, no matter how brutally you murder me, Tetsu, it will not bring Satomi back to life."

His hand flew backwards, high above his head before coming down once again on her flaming cheek. Her head spun to the left, her eyes closed tightly shut to keep out the images of blood she could practically see stained on Tetsu's hands. She could feel it, the blood from his palms that was now slowly dripping down the sides of her face. It was the blood from the victims he had killed, his father, the many other people that had ever gotten in the way of his plans, and now... her blood would be joining it.

She was going to die, she could practically sense Death lurking in the corners of the room, grasping the staff that would point her in the direction of Heaven or Hell. She could feel his breath on her face and on the back of her neck for Death had taken over the body of Kurotara Kajima, her husband-to-be, Tetsu.

"How dare you speak her name!" Kurotara screeched at her, his hand still raised in the air, ready to bring it down upon her face again if she so much as moved, but seeing that she held no reaction only made him angrier and he slapped her again. He wanted to see her in pain.

"Cry, goddamn it!" he shouted into her face through gritted teeth and he yanked down on her hair, bringing Megumi down to where he bent low into her face, beckoning her to sob out, to whimper and satisfy his sadist motives, "I said cry!" Megumi shook her head in answer. "Why won't you fucking cry already?!" he shouted again, his voice agitated and low and he pulled harder on the strands of hair he held in his hand, "You think this is a game, do you? Huh?! Do you think this'll all be over just like that? I've got news for you, Megumi, it's not. This will be the longest day you have ever lived and it will also be your last."

"You don't scare me, Kurotara," Megumi shot back. Instantly, he let go of her hair, his eyes growing hard and dark with anger and he stepped backwards toward the window, his footsteps exaggerated with his frustration, his arm leaning against the window frame. "What are you doing, Kuro...?" she questioned, but broke off into a fit of coughing before she could finish, her throat suddenly filmed with something slick and warm and she spit it out onto the floor. 

It was ... blood...

"I don't scare you anymore, huh?" he practically seethed at her, "Does death not scare you anymore, Sweetheart?"

"No. The only thing that scares me is the fact that men like you actually exist," she retorted, her eyes losing their drowsy impression for a few brief seconds so she could flash him an icy glare through her disheveled hair. He whirled back around to face her, his hand flying to it's back side to strike her again, and Megumi shut her eyes, waiting for the hard slam of his hand to her swollen cheek. But it never came.

"I will very much enjoy watching you die, Megumi," Kurotara stated coldly, his different colored eyes gazing out into the yard for something Megumi was unsure of, looking over the grass as if daring it to run away and tell someone what was going on inside the clinic. He turned back to her. "But not as much as I'm going to enjoy this..."

"What do you mean by that?" Megumi choked out, but she couldn't end her thought. Her throat had become too filled and again, she spat out more blood from her mouth and onto the tatami mat below her, watching it as it seeped deeper into the reed material and make it's mark among the shadows that danced along the floor. 

"You remember how I said I was going to drown your son in the nearby river?" he asked her, a sly grin appearing over his darkened features and Megumi's breath caught in her throat, "Well, I decided to hire someone to do it instead."  
  


Suzuki was exhausted, his legs were now running on automatic, barely able to keep up with Sanosuke's fast sprints back towards the clinic that his mother was being held captive in. Slowly his eyes weighed down, slipping lower to the floor beneath his feet that whizzed by like a bird in the sky and he felt himself falling, falling down to the ground, but he was too tired to catch himself.

Suddenly a pair of strong arms found their way around him and he was hefted up into their capacity. Suzuki knew it was Sanosuke carrying him even if he didn't open his eyes and he felt his father gaining back the speed he had lost when he paused to catch him before he hit the ground.

He knew he shouldn't be falling asleep, not when his mother needed him to be there for her. He had failed her once when he wasn't able to defend her against Tetsu in the kitchen earlier that afternoon and prove to her just how strong all his training with Kaoru and Yahiko had made him, and God had given him a second chance at proving himself a man, but now, as his body slowly fell into fatigue, he was failing her again.

"Please save Mommy, Mr. Sagara..." Suzuki whispered, already half-asleep in his father's arms and Sanosuke looked down into his dirtied face, the one that reminded him all too much of himself as Suzuki softly spoke again, "Please save Mommy... for me..." 

Sanosuke gulped back the lump in his throat that had been building up since the day he arrived back in Tokyo, now practically the size of a tennis ball as he cradled his son closer to his body, unsure if he had ever known a braver kid. It chilled him to the bone to think that he had actually created such a person and yet filled him with pride all in the same moment. He wished he could've been there to see his first steps, to hear him say his first words, to feel the soft kicking he had done when he was still in Megumi's womb. He had missed out on so much in the years he was away and now, he was here at last. He had a family, a home, a life, but all that could be taken away from him in an instant if he wasn't careful. But Sanosuke was going to make sure that didn't happen.

"Hey you!" Sanosuke's thoughts came to a screeching halt at the sound and he turned in the direction of the voice, looking up from his son's slumbering face to the smirking one of a large and burly man in front of him. His eyes narrowed and the man punched his fist into his palm, a sure sign that this guy was looking for a fight. "I take it you're that Sagara guy that my boss's been talkin' 'bout."

'I don't have time for this,' Sanosuke thought, anxiously looking about for some other way around the hulky man before him, but he blocked the trail to the clinic with his body and the huge menacing grin he wore on his face, 'Dammit... I need to get to Megumi!' Unfortunately, this guy blocking his way had other ideas. 

"And I take it you're not here for a nice chat over tea and crumpets," Sanosuke rallied back, making the other man's grin grow wider across his face, stretching so far he was sure it would break off his jaw. "Look, I don't have time to kick your ass right now, asshole, so if you're not gonna get the hell outta my way, I'll just move through you."

"You think it's gonna be that easy, eh?" the man said with a laugh and he dropped down low to the ground. His legs stood shoulder-width apart as he got himself into fighting stance, every intention set on keeping Sanosuke exactly where he was. "Mr. Kajima didn't order no bum off the streets to take care of business, Sagara, he hired me, Kyo, fighter for hire. I'll tell you one thing, the only reason I even took up this job was the chance to fight you. Your reputation as Zanza back in the day was the one aspect of this job and I'd be able to die a happy man knowing I beat you. But being that you don't seem to want to hang out for little bit, I'll make ya a fair deal. Hand over the kid and I'll think about letting you live. But, if you wanna make things harder for yourself, keep the kid, but you gotta get through me first if you wanna get any farther than where you're standing right now."

Kyo's words were strong, but Sanosuke didn't exactly have the time or the patience to find out if he really was as good a fighter as he said he was. He had heard about Kyo years ago, long before he had left Tokyo, no, this was way back when he was still known through the city as Zanza, but he had never crossed paths with the man. It was said by the other people that occupied the bars and alleyways at the time, that he and Kyo were both the best at what they did, fighting for money or sometimes, just for fun. In a way, Kyo was known as the "only match for Zanza" and Sano had to admit, it intrigued him then to meet the man and test just how well Kyo went along with all the rumors that were spread throughout the dark alleyways at night. 

But Sanosuke cared nothing for titles or reputations, neither on the streets or now, yet somehow Kyo was set on fighting him and there was absolutely no way he was going to get to Megumi without getting through Kyo first. If it was a fight he wanted, it was a fight he was gonna get because there was no way in hell Sanosuke was gonna lose what he had just now gotten back after all his long years away from Tokyo.

"You wanna fight me? Fine," Sanosuke said, his eyes downcast to his little boy's sleeping face as he slowly set him down on the steps of a closed hotel, carefully placing Suzuki's head against the wall for support before he turned back to his opponent with coal black eyes, "Let's get this over with. Just don't get my shirt dirty with your blood." 

'I'm sorry, Megumi...' he thought silently to himself as he readied himself into his fighting stance, his left leg trailing behind him to give him more speed in his charge and his right leg set in front as a balance, 'Just hold on a little longer... I'm coming...' Lowering his head, he flicked the few strands of his bangs that fell into his eyes to the side as he prepared himself for the fight that would from now on determine the fate of just how happily ever after this story was going to end.  
  


A/N: I know, I know. Another cliffhanger. I hate them too, but hey, you know, it keeps the readers interested! Leave a review please! Thanx to those of you who have in previous chapters! It's great encouragement!


	11. Another Time And Place

Chapter 10:

"Another Time And Place"

  
  


"No... no, you didn't..." Megumi whispered, shaking her head in disbelief, "you couldn't have... No one on earth would be so sick that they would kill an innocent child!"

"Oh I doubt that, Megumi," Kurotara mused, his eyes glaring at her from their corners, unnerving her, "You'd be surprised at the amount of things people will do if you reward them right. I got lucky this time, though. I didn't even have to pay him anything."

"It doesn't matter who you hired to do this, Suzuki is safe. He's gone. There's no way your killer could've gotten to him," Megumi protested as best she could, every word she spoke scratching at the back of her throat, already agitated and sore, "he's with Kenshin and the others. They're protecting him this very minute so you just wasted your time hiring someone to do your dirty work!"

"You're wrong. You can keep telling yourself that he's safe if it makes you feel better, but we both know that's not true. That son of yours is dead now. No longer alive, no longer breathing, no longer moving," Kurotara murmured, his voice growing louder and louder as he neared the chair she was tied to. Soon he was so close, she could smell the faint alcohol in his breath as he spoke right in front of her face. "Just imagine, you will never see your little boy again. You'll never be able to hold him. Ever. I bet you're wishing you told him you loved him, don't you? Wouldn't you just love to tell him one more time? Just one..."

"SHUT UP!" Megumi cried, "... just... shut up..." 

She wanted to kick him, to hurt him, maybe even kill him. And she had every reason to. He had threatened her, her child, everything she had ever cared for in life, and he deserved pain. Her legs were free of restraints, but she had no energy. It already took so much out of her just so she could talk. Tears streamed down her face as millions of tiny flashbacks shone through her mind: Suzuki when he was first born, when he had said his first word, held her hand, hugged her... Megumi closed her eyes. 

"He's safe..." she whispered again, more to convince herself rather than convince him, "He's with his father and I'll be damned if Sanosuke would let anyone hurt him."

"But would he let someone hurt you, Sweetheart?" Kurotara snickered, moving closer to cup her chin in the palm of his hand and he knelt down so his nose brushed against the tip of hers. Megumi stared him straight in the eye, fear mixed in with her anger easily read by her captor. "He would protect Suzuki with his life, I'm guessing. Just like you did. But tell me, Megumi, once your son is safe and sound, what will happen to you? Do you really think your old fiancé's going to come back here and save you? Because, we all know just how well he protected you last time, don't we...?"

Megumi bit her lip to try and peel off his sarcastic words from her body. Kurotara, Tetsu, whoever he was, had hit a mark and that mark had been like a hard blow to her stomach. Was Sanosuke coming back for her? Would he still care for her after the way she had acted towards him the other day when she had run away when he said he loved her? Or did he forget about her altogether? Every second and every thought ate away at her like a stray dog to a scrap of meat, tugging at her heart in all directions so it could get to every last bite. 

She tried to tell herself that she didn't care and that the only thing that mattered was that Suzuki was unhurt and alive, but God knew, Megumi didn't want to die. Not like this. She wanted to die an old woman, having seen her son grow up and have a child or two of his own, knowing that she lived her life to it's fullest potential, having Sano beside her... 

"If he was going to save you, don't you think he would've gotten here already?" Tetsu continued to push further, breathing the painful words into her, his hand gently stroking the hair at the nape of her neck, ignoring the soft whimpers that escaped her throat, "Do you think you'd be here with a killer like me? Don't you think I'd be dead by now? Arrested? Badly beaten? That love of yours isn't coming to save you, just admit it. You'll die happier knowing the truth. He never cared about you. If he did, I wouldn't have been able to do all this to you... If he loved you, he wouldn't have left you all those years ago. Don't you agree, Megumi?"

Megumi choked back a sob. Maybe death blinded you or confused your mind because all so suddenly, everything Tetsu said to her made perfect sense. Maybe it was the lack of air she received or the pounding in her head, or maybe she hurt all over because what he said was true. If Sanosuke did love her... where was he?

  
  


Gravel hurt. Loose or not, it burned against Sanosuke's skin as his body slid against the concrete road, halfway from the dojo and the clinic, completely empty of all human life besides him and his opponent. Suzuki was still asleep against the steps of the old hotel, his mind off somewhere far away from the anguish he had been tainted with that day. Sanosuke was glad that he was still asleep; he didn't want Suzuki to see him lying on the ground in such a state as he was. 

Sanosuke gritted his teeth as he slammed his fists down into the dirt again, frustrated with the time this fight had already consumed, dust flying about the area where the road markings had once been.

"Cut the bullshit," he spat, turning his face to the side so he could hawk the blood from his mouth onto the floor, "I'm tired of playing around already."

Kyo straightened up his posture. His condition was no better than Sanosuke's. His hair was disheveled, messy, and his fists were covered in blood. It was hard to tell if he was leaning more to the winning or losing side. 

Panting, Kyo stood up from the ground, his eyes wandering over the area Sanosuke had fallen that had quickly vanished into thin air with a thrust of his hands. It was the Futae-No-Kiwami, he presumed, the attack he had heard could smash a boulder into dust without so much as cracking a knuckle. The Futae-No-Kiwami was amazing in all it's glory, truly something worthy of belonging to the specter of the streets that corrupted his enemies with the kanji sign scrawled on his back. It was a good trick, very strong, but Sanosuke wasn't the only one with an ultimate attack up his sleeve.

"I'm glad you've finally decided to take this fight seriously," Kyo responded, sliding his right foot behind him to achieve more balance and better speed capacity with his next hit, "'cause I've been serious this entire time."

The wind rustled the dry leaves scattered among the earth, blowing them across the deserted road and causing them to skid across the dusted pavement. A sudden gust flew the batch of red, orange, and yellow leaves up into the air, a signal for the fight to commence and the dead silence was killed by the cries of the men.

Both their eyes narrowed at the same time as Kyo lunged forward with his right fist, flying out into the air like a hawk and it swooped low to connect with Sanosuke's jaw. Sanosuke automatically drew back at the blow, his head snapping upward, but he was quick to jump back before Kyo followed up with a blow to his face. Ducking low to the ground, his knees bent, Sanosuke kicked his leg up on Kyo's left side, making contact with the soft part of his rib cage with his knee. Kyo's mouth flew open in a giant "O" shape as the echo of cracking bones sounded throughout the quiet town and he stumbled back and away as Sanosuke switched back to his fists.

Right. Left. Right. Left. Again and again, his knuckles hit the hard muscles of Kyo's chest, sending him back a step with every blow, his back arching forward from the force of gravity that pulled him toward his competitor and to the ground. Another right. Another left. The ferocious beating stopped when Kyo's hand suddenly grabbed Sanosuke's fist, only centimeters away from his blackened and bruised abdomen and he pushed back at him, causing Sanosuke to lose his footing. 

He stumbled, but regained his composure enough to move to the side of Kyo's hard punch, but not enough to dodge the second step of his attack that he had not expected. Kyo's fist whizzed past him, barely skimming his bare skin. The blow had hit nothing, but Sanosuke was still hurt. 

Backing up a few steps, Sano held onto his side, feeling the warm liquid of his blood coursing through the cracks of his fingers and he curiously unveiled it, moving his hand away so he could examine the injury. It was an open cut wound, small but deep so that it drew blood from him and he dabbed at the tiny gash, observing the faint color of red that settled into his fingertips with confusion. It was strange, Kyo hadn't hit him, but somehow, he was bleeding.

"It's called Karyu, an attack where you don't really have to hit your opponent to cause them harm. You see, you use up just as much as energy to punch and hit as you do to punch and miss. Because of this, the air force from which you were able to dodge the punch was forced back onto you," Kyo explained, changing his footing to the other side, "you're not the only one with a special attack, you know."

He didn't wait for a response. Kyo charged and while he did this, Sanosuke pretended to be concentrating on how he would maneuver the hit when really, it was just a trick to shadow what he was really thinking. Sanosuke remembered the attack called Karyu, Shouzo had used it on him back when he had gone with Kenshin to fight Shougo Amakusa, the supposed child of God. And besides remembering the name and the consumer of Karyu, Sanosuke also remembered how to move around it. 

Kyo's steps were quick, raging forward at an almost unmatchable pace, and Sano readied himself. It was one of the biggest mistakes Kyo had ever made in using Karyu or maybe it was just Sanosuke's plain old luck that had happened to be on his side for once that he knew how the attack would follow through. He was going to allow Kyo to hit him; the punch hit him square in the abdomen, he was going to let him think he had caught him unprepared; Kyo moved his fist forward again, he was going to let him get so close; his fist came forward, and then... 

A loud crack was heard, startling the birds the rested atop the nearby trees up into flight, sounding through the ghost-like town. Sanosuke kept his eyes closed as he felt the searing pain from his right fist course through his entire arm. But his hand's injury was nothing compared to Kyo's condition.

Kyo flew backwards on his back side, skidding hard across the ground up, kicking up gravel until his body practically reached the river side's edge. Kyo's eyes were shut but his mouth remained open, obviously in shock but too surprised to scream. The Futae-No-Kiwami, that was something he could've expected, but with the after affects of the blow that didn't hit him, was an all around copy of Karyu. Sanosuke was sure he'd feel the dull ache the next morning. Cuts were displayed all over his chest, his shirt now ripped in multiple slashes, diagonal, horizontal, vertical, all over his barren front. But the biggest thing Kyo would struggle with was the blow that had practically crushed his lungs, the one that had so heavily pressed onto his rib cage that more than half of it had shattered from underneath his skin. Kyo was not dead, Sanosuke knew that, but he doubted he could still live with a reputation as popular as his with his new disability to breathe. 

Panting short breaths, thankful that the fight had finally finished, Sanosuke jogged over to where his son still lay asleep and he swiftly pulled the boy into his arms. Suzuki stirred but didn't awaken at the gentle touch, only turned in his father's arms to rest against his bruised shoulder. 

It started as a jog but soon moved on to a steady trot, slowly gaining speed with every step that hit the ground. Sanosuke hoped he wasn't too late...

  
  


Kurotara Kajima loved the smell of fear and in the residence of the clinic, the scent overwhelmed him. It was everywhere, it lurked in every room, but it solely belonged to one person; Megumi. 

None of her was free. Her hands were bound behind her back, circled around the wooden desk chair she had worked in practically her entire time as a doctor in Tokyo, her legs were tied at the ankles, crossed and tight. Her wrists no longer held any feeling and the skin was scratched pink and rough, sprinkled with spots of dried blood. She couldn't struggle anymore, it was just no use. Today was the day that would mark either a new beginning or a fatal end and Megumi wasn't ready for either.

"I suppose it's settled then. I believe I gave more than enough time for those friends of yours to come to your rescue, but it seems as though they're not coming. Surely the Battousai, Sir Ken you call him, right? Surely he couldn't have missed this. I'm starting to wonder if that bomb I sent off to the dojo had anything to do with that..." Kurotara pondered out loud, grinning evilly from under his hand as Megumi head suddenly came up from it's droop to the floor, her mouth agape, "Surprised, are you?"

"You're bluffing!" she countered but her voice came out shaky and uneven. If it weren't for the chair holding her in place, she would have fallen to the floor.

"I'm not," he replied with the shake of his head, his grin growing wider as he took a step forward and Megumi strained in her seat, trying to push it back away from his approaching figure. Kurotara laughed. "Why else do you think they're not here?! They are your friends, aren't they? A bomb or some other kind of obstacle is the only way that they wouldn't get here, right?" Megumi said nothing. "At a loss for words, Sweetheart? That's fine, you don't have to talk. I liked you better when you kept your mouth shut anyway." Steadily he moved, bending over to retrieve something on the floor. 

A knife. 

Megumi's heartbeat quickened at the sight of the shining blade, her eyes widening and she fought against the restraints of the ropes again, but it was futile; they were too tight. Yet Kurotara didn't move toward her, instead, he bent low to the ground, jabbing the knife into the soft tatami mat underneath her feet until the knife fell in smoothly into an already made hole. 

Smiling to himself, Kurotara used the knife to heft up the floorboard and it came off into a huge hunk of reeds in his hands, which he threw across the room in his impatience. Megumi stretched her neck to try and look over his shoulder into what the secret gap under her house contained, but his body blocked her view.

"What are you doing?" she asked, but he paid no heed to her. She repeated herself. "What are you doing?!" 

The object in his hands gave her her answer. It was fairly large, shiny, and made of tin. It held inside it the first puzzle piece, one of the things Megumi feared most in the world, the one thing she refused to speak of until only a few mere years ago, the thing that had forged the death of her family. It was oil; highly flammable oil. 

Megumi's gasp echoed throughout the entire clinic, bouncing off the thick walls and doorways, repeated soundly in the hallways, and then ricocheting, it was brought straight back to her. Kurotara smiled at her reaction.

"I believe you know what this is, Megumi," Kurotara smiled as he untwisted the cap and threw it in her lap. Megumi batted away at it, thrusting her body every which way to get the wretched thing off her as if it held some kind of poison. She wanted nothing to do with it. "You know just how easily such a simple house hold item could turn into something lethal if used correctly. I'm sure your family knows this as well..."

"No! You sick fuck, let me go!" Megumi shrieked, pulling at her restraints, tugging her arms upward toward the ceiling to try and wriggle free, but the ropes only dug deeper into her skin, scratching more at her already raw flesh, "You're not gonna get away with this! Do you hear me?! You're not! Let me go! You can't escape, they'll all know it was you!"

"Oh, you forget, Megumi, with the name Kurotara Takani, there's no way they'll find me," Kurotara replied, hefting the oil can to rest in the crook of his arm and he lunged the can forward, spilling out long seas of the black liquid over the clinic's walls, "Don't you remember? You signed those marriage papers, Sweetheart."

"What are you talking about?! I didn't sign anything!" Megumi shouted, watching in horror as he continued his rampage around the room, the strong odor of gasoline filling her senses as he circled it in the kitchen and near her feet.

"Oh yes you did!" he called over his shoulder as he scattered more oil, pouring the thick substance over the white curtains of her windows, on top of the wooden furniture and sheets, spraying it even on the ceiling, "You made it all too easy for me, Megumi. You should think twice next time about leaving important papers with your signature on them all over the house. It wasn't very difficult to trace over, you know."

"You... bastard!" Megumi screamed out in frustration, "Let me go! Let me go! Arghhhh! You're not getting away with this! They'll find you and they'll kill you! Be sure of that!"

Kurotara shook his head at her as she continued to screech out into the air, pulling harder at the ropes around her wrists and kicking with whatever energy she had left in her feet before her voice finally died off into sobs and her body leaned forward in the shape of a crescent, shaking. He moved over to her, kneeling down at her feet to look at her lowered face, watching as her lips quivered from her cries and her body trembled from the fear of what he had planned for her future. 

Oil covered all the walls, enveloped her with the stale scent, stinging at her brain. It was everywhere. On the tables, the chairs, the patient beds, the doctor's supplies, her clothes. The entire clinic bathed in the strong smelling substance, so rich in oil that you couldn't have told what most things had originally been beforehand. Megumi felt dizzy from the fumes.

"You know what, Sweetheart? There were a few times when I was with you that I didn't find so vile, this being one of them. I'm sure that if the circumstances were different, I really could have fallen in love with you..." Kurotara whispered softly, lifting his grease-covered hand to cup her cheek and Megumi wretched away from him, flinching at his touch as if he were the epitome of all sin. "I am going to enjoy watching every second of your death, but it really is such a shame to put such beauty to waste. Just think, if you weren't such a horrible killer, I wouldn't have to kill you today."

"Get. Away. From. Me." Megumi seethed through her gritted teeth and she cast herself farther from his touch, but Kurotara's hand remained on her cheek and he sighed out loud.

"One thing, I will miss about you, Megumi..." he murmured, his thumb gently stroking the apple of her cheekbone, causing her to jerk away again, but he only slid his hand to cup her chin tighter, "... would be... your... lips..." Slowly, he moved down to her face, rubbing his thumb against her chapped mouth for a few brief moments before he pressed his lips to hers, causing Megumi to lurch back to get as far from him as possible but his other hand held her head in place in front of his, disabling her from moving away. Megumi felt like vomiting.

After the longest two minutes of Megumi's life, he pulled his mouth away from her's, his tongue trailing behind still on her bottom lip, and she abruptly turned her face away, as if his kiss had just written out her death sentence, her tears collecting slowly at the base of her chin.

Kurotara smirked, bringing his hand low into his pocket and his rough fingers slipped around the small packet of matches he had kept just for this occasion and he pulled it from it's home in his trousers.

"For Satomi...," Tetsu, Kurotara, Death, raved as his index finger and thumb pressed the tiny match in between themselves, rising slowly up into the air and swiftly came down onto the sandpaper side of the box, lighting it almost instantly. Megumi's breath caught in her throat as in her eyes, the bright fire was reflected and feared, shining in her pupils like the sun's rays that would awaken her to a new morning. But today, it seemed she had seen her last sunrise. 

"Good-bye, Sweetheart."

The match fell, well lit on the once crimson end that would soon turn black as night. It was a small object, no bigger than Megumi's pinky finger, yet somehow it brought out the biggest

threat she could have ever imagined. She watched it fall to the floor, her eyes open as huge as the world itself and it toppled down onto the oil covered tatami mat at her feet. Immediately, the tiny match grew into an open life of blazing flames, all in circles, lines of every kind, surrounding her from every corner. The fire rose up onto the walls, scorching the fabrics and tearing away at the worn edges, browning them. The small table she would always sit and eat meals with Suzuki in had set afire, the iridescent glow of yellow and orange glares practically blinding her.

Soon her eyes began to water as smoke gathered all around her and the flames danced upon the ceiling, rounding off at the corners of the walls and rearing back to the ground. Megumi coughed as the musty air got into her lungs, filming her throat and blackening her sight. She coughed again, this time more viciously as the clean oxygen that had once filled the room died out. Beads of sweat rolled down her face, sliding down her neck onto her back, sticking her more to the solitude of her chair as the fire lapped at her feet like a hungry dog.

Kurotara was nowhere in sight, most likely having left the minute the fire had risen, vanishing into the wind like the ghostly figure of Death he was named in Megumi's mind. Dark gray fog flew up to the ceiling, gathering into thick clouds over the flames that skipped along everything it touched, burning through every obstacle imaginable, scorching holes through every little thing that got too close. 

Nothing could hide. 

Megumi coughed more blood, spitting it at the fires that approached her in hopes of calming it but there wasn't enough. She spat at it, wringing her wrists around the ropes in her efforts to wriggle free, but it was no use. The fire grew brighter, closer, hotter, and she felt her breath curling in her throat as if confused on where to go.

She was trapped. The world grew faint and blurry as more smoke filled her lungs, drugging her, seducing her into it's spell. Her eyes slowly closed, blocking out the obscene images before her of all her medical files and life's work crumbling into dust, all her belongings mutating into nothing but useless ash. Pictures flashed before her as she felt the hot burn of the fire at her toes, but she did not pull away. She couldn't pull away, she was already gone.

  
  


A/N: No, it's not what you think! This ends happy, I swear! Sorry that I have to leave you with yet another cliffhanger. It all depends on how many reviews I get (good ones anyway) that makes me work faster, so... cough, cough review cough, cough ^^


	12. All I See Is Black And White

Chapter 11:

"All I See Is Black And White"  
  


"Oh my god..." What was once the clinic was now nothing but unmerciful flames over a cowering and burning house, the windows shattered and melted, the roof crumbling to the floor in dust particles that were eventually carried off into the wind. The only thing Sanosuke could think was: 'I'm too late...' 

But he knew, she was in there; dead or alive, Megumi was still inside that smoldering thing she had once called home and he needed to get her out.

"Megumi!" He ran, too blinded with his objective to save the love of his life, to recapture whatever it was left of her, that he had no time to fear the dangers of what could happen if he got even an inch too close. Whatever was left of her.. A lock of hair, a piece of her clothing, anything; he just needed to know that he still had something of her with him, that he was able to save something... 

But his legs weren't moving. Sanosuke barely felt the pair of hands gripping his arm until he realized that they were holding him back and he frustratingly tried to pull away, anxious to get to his Megumi, or whatever it was that was left of her. The grip on his arm only tightened against his struggling.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Kaoru cried, pulling with all her might to inhibit Sanosuke exactly where he was, keeping him from going inside the toppling clinic, "You can't go in there, Sanosuke! You'll get yourself killed!"

"You think I don't know that?! Let me go, Kaoru!" he shouted, yanking harder to get his elbow out of her grasp, but she held on tight, as if her life depended on it. She was scared too, but needless to say, she wasn't about to let him in there and leave his son a bastard. 

By now Sanosuke was too terrified to think of anything else than throwing away his life to save whatever Megumi was left in the fiery pit before his eyes. He would've walked through the blazes of Hell itself if he could just see her again. 

"I gotta go in there! Megumi's... she's still in there! I can't just leave her in there!" He jerked his arm away, harder this time, but Kaoru only grabbed him by his shirt. "I have to save her, I promised Suzuki! Kaoru, let me go!"

"No! I've already lost one of my best friends today, Sanosuke, and I'm not about to lose another!" she bawled, clinging to him, her nails digging into the tough fabric of his gi, "I'm not losing both of you! You can't... do this....!" 

"Let him go, Kaoru," Kenshin said finally, placing a gentle hand on his wife's shaking one, still holding onto Sanosuke's gi from behind as she sobbed into the air of crackling flames. Kenshin carefully pried her fingers from his friend's wrinkled jacket, bringing her back into his embrace. "He knows what he's doing, that he does."

"But Kenshin...!" Kaoru began, her eyes welling up to their brims at the thought of losing yet another one of her dearest friends all in the same hour, and she looked back at the burning house where she knew Megumi was trapped inside. She wanted to help save her too. They tried to get there in time to help, but they were too late. They were all too late... 

Slowly, Kaoru fell into her husband's arms, letting him know she would cooperate and she buried her face in his neck, unable to look at what could be the last glimpse she would ever see of Sanosuke Sagara. Soothingly, Kenshin smoothed the strands of her hair, rubbing her back to calm her quaking nerves and he watched as Sanosuke gave him an appreciative nod before he took off towards the burning clinic. He never once looked back.

Megumi was out of her body, far away in a world where fire was not a word at all, where the grass grew to the size of trees and covered the earth like a warm blanket. She was lost on a hill, looking up at the sky above that seemed to stretch farther than the eye could possibly see. The sun was out and it was warm, warm enough to go barefoot among the grass. Sakura petals flew about in the breeze, circling her with the light color of... nothing.

The colors were all gone, missing. The grass was nothing but huge masses of gray, blowing softly to the left from whence the wind whispered and called. The flowers were struck white, their stems a dark shade of black and the sky was a light grayish hue, like the shade of grease. There was no variety. The world was without color, tasteless, barren. And she was alone. 

Frantically, Megumi's eyes searched over the plain for any form of intelligent life, but there was no other person in sight. She began to spin, her feet gracefully turning first to the right as she sought the land for somewhere to go, some place she could go to. She was lost in some kind of gloomy universe, dank and lonely in a place where again, no one would come to her aide. 

Megumi barely noticed the absence of scars and blood, the lack of pain that had practically smothered her in it's wings. She never realized the beauty of herself returning to what she had been before... she left Tokyo for Aizu, before all the pain of losing Sano, before she met Tetsu. She remained oblivious to the lengthy white dress she wore upon her body, so light and comfortable it felt like air, and she ignored the small brushes of her waist length hair to her back as she continued down the hill in any direction that would require movement. She was Megumi Takani, the before side of the horror, and she didn't even know it.

Not knowing what to do, she ran, trudging on through the thick fog on the top of the gray grass on the black hill beside the white Sakura flowers and below the vast open sky portraying nothing but black and white. It was like a dream world, one that she wanted to desperately wake up from.  


  
  
  


Sanosuke burst through the front door, kicking the tall oak down with his arms up over his head to protect himself from the falling parts of the clinic's roof. Almost immediately as he entered the room, he began to cough. 

There was fire everywhere, areas he had so many wonderful memories in, and he turned away from their graying remains on the floor as sparks flew from his left and scalded his arms. Hurriedly, he pulled off his jacket and threw it over his head to avoid getting too serious of burns and he struggled to see through the thick clouds of smoke. 

He could hear the creaking of the walls that threatened to topple over at any given second, the scratching noises the wood made as the fire and smoke kicked it around. Lifting his face up, Sanosuke jumped to his left, stepping aside as he dodged a scorching ceiling piece that fell from above. The clinic wasn't going to stay standing for long. The walls looked about ready to sprawl onto the floor any minute and in it, trapping them inside the Devil's mouth. He coughed again.

"Megumi!" he shouted over the crashes of shattering glass. He cursed under his breath as another piece of the ceiling dropped down at his feet, and he kicked it aside, venturing further into the fiery pit, squinting his eyes to see through the thick clouds of smoke and bright blazes of the scarlet flames. "Megumi! Where are you?!"

  
  


Soft angelic music played in her head, impregnating her thoughts and feelings, confusing her. Her legs carried her off, sprinting down the hill in a direction she couldn't tell was either left or right and she felt the cool wind whipping through her hair and it cascaded down her back in rippling waves of black strands. She was scared and confused all at the same time, lost in something so delusional yet utterly real and she slowly began to increase her speed, running forward towards a glowing light at the very bottom of the hill. The tune ringing in her ears followed the rhythm of her galloping feet, leading her to who knows where, following nothing but her heart's steady beat. 

Suddenly, the cool wind died down and her feet abruptly stopped moving. She was at the bottom of the hill, the warmest part, the part that she had no idea she had intended to go to. A light appeared out of nowhere, shining down on her, gracing her head like an angel's halo, and almost instantly her fear ceased as she reached the incredible warmth of the light, glinting off the ebony color of her lashes and tickling down the sides of her arms. It beckoned her with nothing more than it's shine, but despite her closed eyes, she smiled. 

It was strange, it was ordinary, it was fake, it was the most realistic thing Megumi had ever come into contact with. It was everything she could and couldn't have ever imagined. Giggling like she had just been told a secret, Megumi craned her neck higher to take in more of the warm glow that rested on her and her alone. The light... it radiated with the love of all people, the happiness of all smiles, the laughter of all voices. It had to be... It could only be... It was... Heaven.  
  


  
  


"Oh god..." He panicked when he saw her. She was still there, all in one piece, but her skin was charred and spotted with burns. Her clothes were battered and torn, as if wild wolves had broken in and gnawed at everything that came close enough to their barred teeth. She wasn't moving, was so utterly still in her seat, and suddenly, the fire wasn't what scared him most.

Sanosuke anxiously ran behind the smoking chair, black in every place imaginable, barely strong enough to hold up Megumi's weight, and he shakily undid the ropes that bound her in her fiery prison. But without the support of the ropes, her body fell forward from the chair, so limp and lifeless that it didn't even have enough power to hold itself up. 

Sanosuke barely had enough time to catch her in his arms, and he winced as the fire licked at his bare back as he blocked the flames intent on hurting her even more. Sweat drizzled down the side of his neck, his entire body was sore from muscles to bone, and his wounds from the previous fight seemed to be acting up again, still tender from their injuries. Despite it all, he held her close.

"Come on, Fox, let's get you outta here..." he whispered into her ear as he lifted her form up into his arms, holding her in front of him so he could keep out the flares of angry violent fire that reached up with it's sizzling fingers to pull her back to their torture chamber. Sanosuke covered her with his body. He wouldn't let them take her. "I'm gonna get you outta here if it kills me..." 

"He's been in there too long..." Kaoru murmured softly, her head finally coming up from where it had rested on her husband's shoulder and she looked worriedly at the door Sanosuke had entered but had not retired from. Another second passed, but no one came out of the clinic's door. "Kenshin... what if...?"

The windows burst, shattering in all directions, and a million sharp shards of glass fell onto the graying lawn already covered with ash. Kenshin and Kaoru shielded their eyes from the bright lights of the fire and it's wrath, not even noticing the now conscious six year old boy leaning up against the clinic's gate post. They hadn't realized he was awake, that is, until he screamed.  
  


  
  


The word 'death' had never occurred to her. Megumi had never let the thought sink in and she was not at all frightened of it anymore for wherever she was now, it had to be the best possible place one could be. 

There were no more flames, or death, or pain, just this... She wanted this. It was the place the Christians spoke of whenever they talked about death, whenever they came into the clinic with too serious of injuries. It was the home of God, where all the angels lived and nothing short of good existed. Megumi stepped forward to receive her undeniable fate, more than ready to take on what the other side had in store for her. 

But somewhere in the distance, she heard her name. 

'Megumi...' 

The voice was low and remote and she strained her ears to hear it better. 

'Megumi,' it came again. But it was away from the white light, across from the barrier of Heaven and Hell, toward the top of the hill. The voice was soft and gentle, but it sounded... sad... so sad... almost pleading.  
  


  
  


It took the small boy only a moment to realize that whoever it was that was shrieking at the top of their lungs, was none other than him. At the sight before him, he did nothing but act.

"MOM!" Suzuki cried, rushing over on tired legs to where Sanosuke had climbed through the broken window and was now setting Megumi down on the ground, the older man's breath coming in ragged gasps and his body suffering from what looked to be at least third degree burns.

'I got her out...'

"Mr. Sagara!"

Sanosuke looked up from Megumi's unconscious form, one burnt hand holding her's as he watched Suzuki kneel down by his mother's side, his eyes open so wide he couldn't blink. Suzuki looked over his mother's immobile body in confusion. 

"Mom?"

Sanosuke swallowed hard, pushing back the wad of smoke that had built up in his throat, and he gently squeezed Megumi's hand, indicating that she was now safe and he was finally there. Anxiously, he waited for her to open her eyes.

"Megumi, you're okay now... I'm here," Sanosuke whispered, his voice straining at every syllable that rolled off his tongue, stinging at his dried throat, and he squeezed her hand again. But he received no response. "Megumi... hey, wake up," he tried again. 

Nothing.

Panic suddenly rose in his heart, his veins pumping wildly underneath his skin as he placed two of his dirtied fingers to the side of her neck, frantically searching for her pulse, but, he felt no heart beat. It was then that he realized that even though her lips were slightly parted, he felt no air escape.

"Oh my god...! She's not breathing!"   
  


  
  


The light of Heaven shone brighter, bringing her attention away from the crying voice, a constant battle for the most observation, like a child having a fit over the toy his parents refused to buy. They both begged her for attention.

'Megumi..' the voice called again, louder this time, as if it were coming closer.

Suddenly, she felt it, the strong hands reaching out to her from the light above, drawing her away from turning around. But the voice was heard again in the other direction and slowly she opened her eyes, revealing the outstretched hand so close to her own, the hand of an angel. It screamed out 'Take me' but it whispered it all at the same time. If the foreigner's stories were true, then this would be...

'Megumi...' the voice from behind her came louder, more distinct, and she turned her head to face the direction of it, her back to the beckoning angel's hand. The voice held something of importance, like it wasn't supposed to be there. It sounded... scared. But Megumi didn't know what of.  
  


  
  


"Mommy...? Wake up, Mommy..." Suzuki whispered, gently shaking his mother's shoulders to grab her attention, but her eyes remained closed. Suzuki shook her harder. "Mommy! Mommy, it's me, Suzuki! Wake up now! Why aren't you...?"

"Suzuki..." Sanosuke choked, placing his hand over his son's in an act of comfort, but the eyes Suzuki directed towards him, so desperate and ignorant, they kept him from speaking. Those eyes, they reverberated with innocense, a trait Sanosuke barely remembered ever having.

"What's wrong with her? She's gonna be alright, right, Mr. Sagara? She's gonna be okay, right...?" Suzuki practically pleaded, his hands quivering as he violently gripped Sanosuke's arm, "You... you saved... you saved Mommy for me... didn't you...?"

"Suzuki... I..." Sanosuke trailed off. What could he say? What could he do? He had promised him, he had promised his son that he would save her. He had even promised himself, but... she was... 

"Suzuki, come here for a second," Kenshin called to the boy from the gate, his expression unreadable as he tried to be strong in front of the child, not wanting to let Suzuki know there was any reason to be alarmed. The boy wasn't used to death, probably didn't even know what it was, and Kenshin thought it best that he not learn now.

Too tired to object, Suzuki slowly stood and he sluggishly dragged his feet over to where his uncle and aunt stood, his eyes showing confusion, worry, regret; all things Kenshin had known all too well during his own childhood. 

Bending down low so that he met Suzuki eye to eye, he made him turn away from his mother's lifeless form on the ground, refusing to let the boy see his father break down.

"Your mom's going to be just fine, that she is," Kenshin said, hugging the boy in his arms with his head turned down upon his shoulder, sharing the space Kaoru had used as a support-hold, "She's going to be okay..." 

Kaoru remained standing, listening intently to the comforting words she heard Kenshin whisper in Suzuki's ear, and her grip on Kenshin's shoulder rigidly tightened as she watched one of her best friends in the entire world weep like a baby before her. 

"Megumi..." Sanosuke sobbed, his head easing it's way down towards the floor, slowly pressing his perspiring forehead down upon her unmoving shoulder. Breathing hard through his mouth, his hand tenderly and shakily stroking the silky strands of her ebony hair, his other hand gingerly cradling the back of her head. He wanted so much to feel her heart, to see her breathe just one last time, to hear her voice... He needed to know that he didn't fail her. "Megumi... you... you can't be dead... you can't be... I can't lose you... not again... not after I just got you back... you can't just leave me here all alone... Megumi, I need you... Wake up... Please... come back... come back to me..."

Not again. This couldn't be happening to him again. It happened too much, too often, too fast. He could never get close to anyone; they all ended up like this. One by one, they all fell dead, all because he had tried to help them, to save them, but he had never truly triumphed. This was the story of his life. 

'I should never have come back....' Sanosuke thought to himself, still gently cradling Megumi's head, his fingers intertwined through several strands of her hair, his tears soaking the burnt edges of her kimono, 'If I hadn't, Megumi might... she might still be alive...'

He tried to save her, he almost did, but... almost doesn't count. Not in matters like these.

Sanosuke couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, all he could do... was feel, and he hurt all over. His body felt so suddenly heavy, dragged down by gravity to the earth's floor, his skin was tingling, like he was just electrocuted and his head was spinning, as if he had just recovered from a bad fall from two stories high. He felt like he was missing a limb from his body, an important item, vital for survival. Sanosuke wanted to die.  
  


  
  


Megumi turned her head around, back to the open arms of the angel that had appeared before her. It held a beauty life had never known, it held a grace no human had ever possessed, it held a source so powerful that no amount of strength could move it. The angel had no face, but she knew it was smiling at her, welcoming her. Leisurely, the angel reached out with it's beautiful hand, extending it to take hold of her's, yet Megumi looked back once again as the voice called her from behind.

'Megumi...' 

The voice, it was so familiar, so wonderful despite it's sadness. It seemed to be... crying... But why? 

And suddenly, a feeling of intense warmth engulfed her, not the flames of any fire, or the light's brilliant glow, but something much more deep-felt. Her heartbeat quickened, the blood in her veins coursing through her entire body, as if surging some kind of renewed energy, and she felt the torridness steadily increase in her heart. It was so familiar. It was the warmth that only one thing could bring into her heart. And Megumi knew at last whose voice it was.

"Sanosuke..." she whispered back, her eyes finally open, as if she had been blind up until that very moment. 

The angel looked to be shocked, as if speech was as forbidden as adultery on religious grounds. Megumi turned her head around, her cinnamon eyes blinking rapidly as she was finally awakened from her trance, and as her gaze settled, she saw an opening in the far end of the valley of black and white, the direction of Sanosuke. 

It was a hole, so finely shaped, like the finest artwork of all the earth. But that wasn't the most amazing thing about it. No, the most spectacular characteristic was that it was... in color. Reds, pinks, greens, blues, yellows, every color ever created and more, all centered around that tiny hole. And in that hole she saw Sanosuke's face, his own hand reaching out to take her's. She could almost feel his arms surrounding her.

'Megumi...'

The angel's hand came closer, fighting against the other side, willing her to choose the heavenly path instead. It said nothing, but it's warmth was it's own heavy persuasion, the light of all the world.

Either decision had no turning back option, no second chances. This decision was final, no do-overs. Which way should she go? To the open arms of the angel wings and heavenly music that sang in the loudest form of choruses the opportunity of bliss or to the arms of the one she loved most in the world, the warmth in her heart that made her happy to be alive? 

Megumi didn't think. She just ran; ran to where she knew she belonged.  
  


A/N: Which way did she choose? Hm... Leave a review and I'll let you know faster! By the by, since this is the self-titled chapter i.e. All I See Is Black And White, just like the story, I guess you know what that means! No, no, no. Of course I wouldn't leave you hanging with an ending like this. The next chapter will most likely be the last, besides the epilogue of course, so we'll see how fast I'll update. (Hint: encouragement inspires me greatly! ^^)


	13. Anywhere You Need To Be

Chapter 12:

"Anywhere You Need To Be"

  
  


'No....' the angel whispered as Megumi took off, her bare feet padding softly against the tall gray grasses of the floor, getting farther and farther away from the glow of Heaven, 'Come back...'

But Megumi did just the opposite; she ran faster. From this point on, she could only move forward, never off course and certainly not back. She refused to look back at the angel, even for a brief second, not when she had taken the biggest choice of her life. It would tempt her with it's charm again, she knew it. 

She knew the opportunities she had been so silently offered with the walkway to Heaven, but even with knowing that... she couldn't go. There was only one place in all the universe, throughout all time, that she could ever be truly happy in, and that place was with Sanosuke. Come Heaven or Hell, she wanted to be with him more than anything.

'Just over the hill, just over the hill,' Megumi began to chant repeatedly in her head, a never ending rhyme that gave her the strength to climb higher on the tall dirt mound, the one thing that separated her from the person she would risk eternal life for. Her pace only quickened as a figure of doubt hovered above her head.

Megumi didn't even notice it, but her bruises were slowly coming back, seeping their return onto her skin. Her wrists leisurely gained their old blood stains from the binding ropes as she got closer to the real world, her legs gradually becoming numb and stiff. Her hair, once up to her waist, began to shorten to it's original length at her shoulders, slipping away in small inches of chopped strands. Her lips lost their luscious deep color and her youth and beauty began to fade like the stars stealing away the sun's light so they could light up the sky. All the things she could have saved forever in the land among the clouds were slipping right through her fingers for the choice she had made. The angel's voice was no longer heard. 

Every step that took her nearer to home brought back the reality she had left, brought back the pain in her body little by little until it returned to it's former state. All too suddenly, her strength gave out, and she stumbled on weak legs and fell upon the grass.

Megumi gasped, not expecting the intense pain that instantly seared through her limbs. She was reminded too early of just what happened that very same day as memories flooded back to her, stabbing at her mind with the gruff images of what the world was like from whence she came. For the last few minutes, hours, maybe even weeks, that she had spent in this blasphemy of a colorless world, she had been able to forget everything. But now it was all coming back in giant spoonfuls of agony. 

Megumi gritted her teeth as she saw her image in the real world when she shut her tearing eyes, the fire crackling so near her body, and she felt the burns of her skin, the fire grabbing at her flesh, as if she were reliving the torturous flames of the clinic once more. It hurt her more to see it all happen than it did to relive it. She wanted to vomit.

Gasping for what seemed to be her last grip on breath, she looked up from her place on the ground, the rims of her eyes threatening to overflow with the hot droplets building up from underneath her lashes, but she bit them back, not wanting to admit the pain, for fear that it would only become greater. She had already learned that weakness only gave more power to the captor.

In front of her, as plain as anything could be, was the hole, only a mere two feet away from where she pitifully lay on the floor, slowly turning into the form of herself back in front of the clinic; practically dead. 

Had it only been a few minutes ago that she had finally been safe? Every inch that brought her closer to the hole, bursting with every color the universe could conjure up, she felt the pain. The harsh pain of reality. From the state she was in, she could barely move. It was more than she could bear, it was more than just her pain; it was the world's. Megumi could feel every baby's saddening cry rip at her clothes, every person's salty tear falling down upon her shoulders like boulders of lost hope, their angry words burning her like flames. Was this... was this Hell?

"No..." Megumi cried into the soft whistling breeze as she reached up with her burnt and dirtied hands over her head. Her long fingers curled over into fists as she grasped the patches of grass above her, using them as her support hold. "I need... to go.. home..." 

  
  


Softly Sanosuke whispered, more to himself than anyone else, that he could have done more. He could have saved her. Ruefully, he cried against her, too scared to move her body into his arms and receive no response. He didn't want any sort of proof that Megumi really was gone. He didn't want to believe that after all this time, he had lost her again. 

She had left him here, alone and cold on the ground, the clinic's raging fire burning on into the day of no end in the background, filling the atmosphere with black smoke and the smell of gasoline. It offered him no sort of comfort, nothing short of her beating heart would. 

Sanosuke buried his face deeper into her neck, carefully lifting her up into his lap, and he set her head down on his chest so gingerly, as if she were the most fragile of all porcelain and glass. She had always been and always would be, precious to him. Through life and through death, Megumi was his. And it was long ago that it began and it was forever more that he would always remain her's. Marriage vows were unnecessary. 

"To have and to hold, til death do you part." But the marriage hadn't even happened and Sanosuke was already forced to live one of the sacred promises he had never even agreed to. 

With a soft breath that he wished he could send to her, he shut his eyes, completely overlooking the slight movement that came from her left hand as it gave a slight twitch.

  
  


Straining, Megumi hefted herself up, biting down on her swollen lip to stifle a cry as she desperately pursued crawling further up the hill, the coarse grass scratching at her battered and burnt clothing as her belly moved against the dirt. Another inch closer to the hole, another inch closer to home, she coughed. Smoke began to rise again in her throat, despite the fact that she was nowhere near any fire; it choked her. A second later, she coughed again. 

She was turning back. This was the price she had to pay for her choice, this was what she had to live with.

Determined, her right hand moved up higher, grabbing onto another thick patch of gray grass before her and she steadied her weight onto her stomach. Filling her palm full of the drying blades of what was supposed to be green trims, Megumi gasped as she moved herself up another inch, feeling more of the agony her body had endured earlier. 

Megumi told herself again and again that it didn't matter what she had to go through on her way there, the goal at the bottom of the barrel was the only thing that mattered. Getting back to Sanosuke and Suzuki was the only thing that mattered. She'd do anything to be with them again. She could bear the pain, as long as she could make it home in the end.

Warm and fresh blood began to drip from her wounds as she got more proximate to her destination, the pain practically causing her to cry out, yet Megumi found that even if she did, no one would hear her. It was pointless. It scared her to think of what Death still had in store for her for the rest of this god-forsaken journey back. But it was soon ending. 

The hole was so close now she could almost reach out and touch it. If it had a smell, she would have been intoxicated with it. Yet against her will, her legs gave out from underneath her, no longer capable of pushing her along the ground by her knees. Desperately, she tried to move up again by lifting her chest up along the ground, but her strength was draining away, like the river of blood she had left along the dark-colored grass. 

Rasping for air, Megumi tried to move again, but her fingers merely curled into her palm, weak and begging for mercy from the horrible labor she had put on herself. She tried with her other hand. It hovered above her for only a few seconds until it finally gave way to rest and it fell back down onto the dirt mound, lifeless and limp. Against her will, she was forced to rest her cheek against the lawn of the hill, too exhausted to keep moving, her lungs overworked with trying to ease out the smoke.

'Megumi...' Sanosuke's voice came again, so close to her, so agonizingly close...

She shuddered and swallowed the hard ball of the fire's breeze that buried itself deep into throat and her eyes steadily opened, swollen from her tears and watery from the blackened air.

'I'll die here if I don't get there in time...' she thought, her shallow breath leaving light spots of blood on the dark grass and fogging the bright shine of it's shadow. 

Slowly, her body continuing to shake against the lack of power she repeatedly tried to use, Megumi tilted her face up, watching as the color of her blood as it mutated from a darkened black to a slight shade of crimson. She was so close to home, to him, she could feel it... Megumi didn't want to give up. She was admired for her strength and perseverance by many and this proved to be the most difficult obstacle of all.

Stitch up a man's four inch bullet wound in under two minutes? Easy. Go through labor for twelve whole hours? No problem. Come back to life? You've got to be kidding...

But it wasn't in her nature to lose, it was in her blood and heart that she had to win this thing. If she succeeded, the prize at the end was more than priceless, but if she should fail, it was all game over. 

Anxiously, Megumi tried to lift herself up once more, even just a little, but her arms refused to move. She strained against the dead weight of her limbs, pulling up with all her strength, but to no avail.

"I... I can't do it..." Megumi whimpered against the cold earth as her tears finally found their escape way onto her cheeks, practically freezing on the spot, "I can't... do this..."

'Megumi...' Sanosuke's voice grew softer from the hole, and she noticed it fading away, growing farther from where she was, like the sunlight receding behind the clouds after a rainstorm. He was leaving, disappearing from her once more.

Megumi wanted to go to him. She wanted to go to him so badly it hurt; more than her injuries, more than anything. But she couldn't move, not even an inch. Her own body had betrayed her at the worst of times, it had given up when she had needed it most, and now she was nothing but a half-dead corpse with free flowing thoughts. And her thoughts were not in the least encouraging.

His voice resumed it's torture of calling her, over and over, so sad and pained, just like she was, until his call was scarcely heard. Megumi wanted to comfort him, to touch him, to be with him. Abandonment from him once was enough to last her more than a lifetime, doing it again would surely kill her.

"Sano... no... Sano, come back..." she pleaded to whatever blessed thing could hear her, anything that had the heart to listen, "Don't go... don't leave me..." It seemed that only her voice was her given right, even if it served her no help; movement had already been stripped away as a privilege. "Don't leave me again..."

"You really love him, don't you?"

"... Yes. Yes, I do." 

It was a woman that spoke, standing over Megumi's still form as her breath receded from her and more of her pain came from her untreated wounds. Her feet stood planted in the red river of blood she had created across the grass, soaking up her skin and painting her toes and the long hem of her white dress that dragged on the floor. It didn't seem to bother her at all and it didn't seem to bother Megumi at all to answer the woman's questions without any of her own. 

"You were never able to love anyone else, were you, Megumi? No matter how hard you tried, you just couldn't forget him. You wanted to move on with your life so you tried to find love in someone else, but he stayed with you, didn't he? In your mind, in your heart, even after all this time... Was it easy letting him go?"

"No..." Megumi murmured, every syllable that escaped her, stealing away more of her energy until she was practically on the break of falling unconscious, "It almost killed me."

"Do you think you could do it again?" the woman asked her. 

Slowly, Megumi shook her head, her dark hair brushing the blades of grass underneath her face so that they bent every which way, and she watched as her teardrops fell harder down the sides of her face, creating an obscure puddle in the browning dirt.

"Never..." Megumi whispered, cutting off the sob that spilled from her lips only seconds after, the saddest of all humane cries ever made, "I can never lose him again!" 

It was then that the sob finally fled from her lips, and Megumi cried like she never had before, like all of the oceans had lent her their streams and waves. She cried for every night she was ever alone in her bed instead of in Sanosuke's arms, she cried for every person in the world that had ever missed their one chance at love and turned the other way, she cried for every day Suzuki lived without knowing what a great man his father was, Megumi cried for the life that had been stolen from her time and time again. But above all, Megumi cried for love.

"Then, Megumi, you don't belong here anymore than color does," the voice finally replied after what seemed to be the longest moments of Megumi's life and her sobs gradually died down to the lightest of wheezes. Her time was running out...

Slowly, Megumi felt the woman kneel down beside her on the grass, her knees burying themselves into the blood-soaked dirt and seeping onto her dress. She leaned down towards her still form until she was close enough for her breath to brush against Megumi's face, a soothing air that slipped from her mouth to Megumi's weakened lungs. The woman breathed into her with a breath that shone like the silver sky, illuminating life. She was lending her part of herself, allowing Megumi to borrow her strength. 

Life streamed through her and Megumi's chest rose. Silver mist whirled inside her blood. Her left hand twitched.

"Go home, Megumi," the voice whispered into her ear and Megumi felt a warm hand brush the soft skin of her cheek, "He's waiting for you."

That was all she needed to say, it was all Megumi needed to hear and more. Those words were her signal, they snapped something inside of her and forced open her reddened eyes. And with that, followed the rest of her body. 

Slowly, Megumi lifted her stiff arms from their place at her sides and shakily pushed herself up from the ground until her chest stood a good few inches high in the air. Newfound strength filling her entire body from limb to limb as she kneeled against the floor, pushing more with her arms until she stood up on her feet.

Cautiously, unsure if her legs would even work, Megumi took a step towards the hole, her eyes opening wide at the sight of beautiful rays of light swirling in huge spirals within. Yet something made Megumi slowly turn back around to face her savior. Possibly curiosity but maybe perhaps it was the small goosebumps that rose all over her skin that made her look and she settled her eyes on the woman behind her, standing there with a smile that would never conclude any description of beauty. She was beyond beauty.

"Go," the woman encouraged, her long brown hair swiveling past her pale face from the wind's breeze, and she gracefully lifted her slim arm and pointed back to Megumi's way home, "Don't look back." 

Smiling, Megumi nodded her head and stepped up to the entrance of the hole's opening, accepting it's glow and warmth as if it were Sanosuke himself. She was ready.

As soon as her foot took one step inside, millions of rainbows sprouted and flew out before her in all directions, screaming with color and radiating with tastes and smells that satisfied all her senses. The pain was soon forgotten as it was replaced with faint flashbacks and pictures of her life on Earth. 

Memories, wonderful memories of everything that had ever made her happy: Holding onto Suzuki during the rainy nights when the thunder scared him from his room, listening to Kenshin as he told her how to compensate for all her years of sin, convincing Kaoru to go to Kyoto and follow her heart, watching Yahiko become the great man she always knew he would grow up to be, hearing Sanosuke tell her he loved her. It was all so beautiful, so perfect, but it was all brutally interrupted when suddenly, it all went black and dull and the only thing Megumi could hear was the woman's gentle voice:

"Being blind is no excuse for only being able to see in black and white; love paints even the darkest of worlds. Tell Kurotara that..."

It was then that Megumi's eyes closed and they never opened in that black and white world again.

  
  
  
  


A/N: I particularly like the line I made for the "mystery woman" to say before Megumi goes back home: "Being blind is no excuse for only being able to see in black and white." It's got two meanings, one being obvious, the other being a little deeper. And also, who do you think the "mystery woman" is? I'll hurry up with the end if anyone can figure it out! ^^ 


	14. After The Curtains Close

Chapter 13:

"After The Curtains Close"  


  
  


Soft sputtering was heard in the distance, like tiny leather whips cracking at the bare backs of slow-working slaves and Megumi squinted as she felt something bright glare down on her face. She shut her eyes tight. Her senses were dulled, but still, a bit fuzzy at first, she heard noise around her, tiny light snaps of what Megumi could only guess was sparks of fire. 

Where was she?

Her left hand twitched, ticking slowly to the left, and in that small movement she knew she wasn't dead; maybe not alive, but certainly not on Death's door. Megumi recognized the strong ache of her arms, the dried blood encrusted over her hands, and the callused burn marks all over her body all too well. She could feel the horrible bruises on her back, the raw skin of her wrists and ankles, again, spotted with the liquid of her life. Honestly, it was the greatest feeling she had felt in a long time. Megumi felt... alive.

She could feel every drop of blood that moved within her body, through her heart as it pumped itself back through her veins, slowly at first, but gradually building up speed. The blood rushing through her entire body enlightened her soul, revived her brain back into command, and gave her back the life she had almost lost. She could practically hear the gushing sounds of it's waves beneath her skin.

Suddenly her chest rose, one faint breath easing it's way into her open mouth and seeping inside her, increasing the speed of her racing heart, and compelling her to move. Another breath came in, deeper this time, and her senses came alive.

Megumi had no way of describing the way she felt at that moment when everything became so bold. She could only depict it as being born. Everything seemed so new and foreign to her mind; her collection of thoughts, the art of smell, sounds coming into her eardrums, the hard pounding of her heart. It was a reoccurring deja vu of something she had known before and it captured her into it's seduction. Her tongue began to distinguish taste, her nose narrating smell, her skin taking in touch. Megumi never knew she could feel something so beautiful. 

She felt warm all over, as if she were covered by a thick blanket made entirely out of wool, and as her brain began to function again, Megumi realized that she was off the ground. Not floating, no, someone was holding her. Her thoughts raced each other down the alleyway of her brain, running along the interior walls, and heading straight towards the core. They were jumbled at first, confused and uncertain, but the familiarity of the person's presence brought back something buried deep inside her and revived it. 

Her mind was like an empty room held sacred for it's golden silence and then all so suddenly, someone drops a pin and everything draws forth in slow motion. The pin falls, and once it hits the floor, reality rushed her with it's crashing power: she was in the one place she never wanted to depart from, she was in the safest place imaginable, she was in Sanosuke's arms. 

Immediately following this realization, Megumi heard at last, that same beckoning voice that had compelled her home in the first place.

"Megumi..." Sanosuke whispered, "please forgive me... I tried, Megumi, I really tried..."

She had made it. She was with him. She was home. 

The corners of her mouth twitched as her lips trembled under her weak strength. Megumi wanted to speak, to tell him that it was all going to be alright, but she couldn't. Her mind had already gotten used to the lack of motion and thoughts, buzzing only to all the silent messages she tried to send her brain to move her lips, but they didn't budge. It was as if it didn't remember the art of speech. In her own body she was helpless. She couldn't even open her eyes, and it hurt her head to try. Megumi's left hand twitched again.

"Please don't leave me..." he murmured, unaware of the slightly moving figure in his embrace as he lightly brushed his fingers across her cheek, "... I love you..." 

Sanosuke's body shook, racked by his cries, and he lifted his face up from her neck, gazing at her still face. She was so perfect, so stunningly beautiful despite everything that happened to her. 

He had never once thought that he would ever lose her to anything or anyone, he had no idea life could be so cruel, he never knew he could hurt from the inside-out. Until now. When he left all those years ago, he still had that precious dream that he would see her again, sometime, somewhere. When he had found her with Tetsu, only weeks until their marriage, he still had hope that she would return to him, but now... Now that chance was lost and he had just found her again. 

She was gone.

Slowly, cautiously, he brought his mouth down to her's, still quivering and dry, stained with wet tears that refused to stop their tirade down his face. Sanosuke kissed her for a long moment, gently, knowing that it would be the only thing he could have left of her, one last sweet memory that hurt as much as it pleased. He wanted to kiss her, he needed to, even if it was just... one last time. If it were up to him, he would have stayed in his exact same position until his dying day, holding her. He never felt as right as he did when she was in his arms, where he could protect her. 

It was a stolen kiss, like so many he had gotten away with before when she had fallen asleep in his arms after they made love or sometimes even when they were never together and he just couldn't hold himself back. Just seeing her there, here, so fragile and small, it took up a great amount of energy to keep the desire within. He always felt the need to kiss her, to hold her, to be with her, and now was the last time for it all. With a sigh, he hesitantly drew his lips away and pulled her tighter to his body, cradling her head against him like a small child.

It was useless to stop the tears from coming now for they only fell faster as the sunlight gleamed upon his dampened face and Sanosuke sadly shook his head, refusing still to utter the words 'good-bye' that would end it all. It was that tiny phrase that had always amazed him when people could say it without trouble. He knew he wouldn't be able to say it, not to her. He knew he'd choke on the first letter.

"G... g..."

God, it hurt. It hurt so bad. He felt helpless, small, a subject of deceit. How could he say it? How could he force himself to forget her? Sanosuke knew, that the moment he let that one little word slip from his mouth, he would have to let her go. Forever. That one word would end everything he and Megumi had ever shared. It would erase all the wonderful nights he had spent lying awake and holding her in bed, watching her as she slept, all the mornings he had cherished waking up next to her and receiving that special 'good morning' kiss. It would erase all the days that she had lit up his life, all the times that her smile managed to melt his heart, every minute that she blessed him with her just simply being there... Sanosuke pulled her closer, for even in death, he could never let her go.

'It's not fair...' he thought as he heaved another breath into his lungs which seemed to be wrapping itself tighter and tighter around his neck, 'It's just not fair...'

"S... Sanosuke..."

Megumi. 

Sanosuke's eyes immediately shot open, blinking rapidly under the harsh sparks of the ongoing fire in the background as he asked himself if he had just heard her speak, or if maybe God hadn't felt complete satisfaction yet with his already severe emotional torture. But Sanosuke was sure he had heard something, a very quiet something, and that something sounded like...

'But that's... impossible...' His eyes only widened further when he felt a movement in his arms as Megumi's chest slowly rose up to allow clean air through her parted lips and he felt the soft tickle of hot breath against his shoulder as she let the air out.

She was... Megumi was... alive?

"I ..." Megumi whispered, her eyelids softly fluttering, like the wings of a new butterfly escaping it's cocoon after a long restless season, and they flew, her eyes finally opening to reveal the intoxicating gaze of her cinnamon colored orbs staring up at him in wonder. To Sanosuke, they were the most beautiful wings of any butterfly imaginable. "... I love you too..."

She had heard him. It boggled the mind to think that if she had heard every little thing Sanosuke had ever whispered to her in his life that was aimed to fall on deaf ears, she either would have slapped him silly or kissed him senseless. But she had not heard him all those times, she had heard him now, when it mattered most.

Sanosuke didn't know whether to laugh or cry, to scream or stay quiet; none of the reactions followed through to his brain. Was this real? Did he die somewhere along the way of saving her? Sanosuke blinked several times as he watched her hand slowly reach up to caress his face, and as her skin touched his, sharp tingles ran through his flesh from head to foot. Her hand was deathly cold to the touch, but it gradually became warmer and warmer with every second that passed, until soon, his skin burned hot under her palm. Her pale face gained back it's natural pinkish hue as another minute befell and her thumb smoothly moved across his dirtied cheek, expertly, as if lulling him into a peaceful slumber. 

He instinctively leaned into her palm, unsure if he should close his eyes for the thought that she might leave him again in the split second that he took his eyes away from her. Slowly, his hand moved up from it's place at the crook of her neck to gently brush his fingers across her lips, gazing intently at her open eyes, her breath dancing against his fingertips; all proof that she was really... alive. A small smile found it's way onto her pale mouth, curving up at it's corners as she kissed every part of him that came close enough for her to do so; soft butterfly kisses that could have been easily mistaken for an angel's touch.

"I wanted to tell you for so long... I wanted to tell you everything," Megumi murmured softly as her lips lightly brushed against his fingers, kissing them gently, and she watched as Sanosuke's eyes allowed themselves to finally close before he brought her close and rested her cheek upon his bare shoulder. Megumi closed her eyes as well, her right hand slowly tracing lower until it laid directly over his pounding heart, and she sighed, taking in the exquisite feeling of his presence that she had waited so long to be in. "Sano, I wanted to tell you so badly... I'm so sorry..."

"Sh... it's okay, love. There's no reason for you to be sorry," he told her, hoping with all his might that she wouldn't start crying; it would only start him up again. "Megumi, how... how did you...?" But the sentence went unfinished for Sanosuke was automatically silenced by Megumi's sweet kiss.

Her lips were still soft, the kiss incredibly tender. It brought back so many memories and pushed away all doubts. It made them both feel dizzy, like a strong head rush after having too much to drink. It took only a second for Sanosuke to respond and he pressed his mouth to her's, deepening it, wanting to take in every single aspect so it would embed itself into his memory.

Finally pulling away, Megumi pressed her forehead to his, the very tips of their noses brushing against each other as she finally spoke, "There's plenty of time for questions later, Sano. Just... just hold me for now..."

She hadn't left him. Sanosuke felt his mouth go dry, enabling him to speak, and he settled on answering with a slight of nod of his head as he pulled her tighter against him. It was like a dream that made him wish he never had to wake up, but it was so unbelievably real. His life so suddenly regained meaning and value, all with just a few simple changes in the act. 

His heart beat wildly in his chest with every movement she made, every word she said, anything she did. It was too much like how he reacted when he had first met her: electrified and enticed with every little thing she happened to do. It made him think everything she touched had just been blessed with the most sacred of all things.

"Tell me I'm not dreaming," Sanosuke silently requested, his hands carefully running through the silken strands of her hair, and his body relaxed as he felt her steady breath caressing him, cooling the burning sensation but adding to it at the same time. Sated, he breathed in her scent, unconsciously swallowing as he felt her lips brush against the bare skin of his tanned shoulder. It certainly didn't feel like a dream.

"You're not dreaming," Megumi whispered in answer. 

Exhausted and relieved, Megumi turned her face to the side so that her forehead lightly pressed against his neck and her hands slowly drifted over him. Her renewed senses craved touch and she craved him. Unaware of the harsh burns he comprehended in protecting her from the clinic's unrelenting fire, her fingers accidently brushed against his back. 

Feeling her hands move across his charred skin, Sanosuke winced at the light sweeps of her gentle fingertips, taking in a sharp breath through his gritted teeth at the harmful touch, and he felt Megumi's hands abruptly stop their delicate movements across his back. And slowly, she turned to look at him, her eyes radiating with energy, life, and above all, concern. Sanosuke could count on one hand how many people had ever really cared about him, Megumi being number one. 

"You're hurt." 

"I'll be okay," he replied with a weary smile and he gingerly brought his lips down upon her cheek, relishing in it's warmth and softness before he brought his kisses down to her throat, "You were worth it..."

"Sano, you..."

"MOMMY!" Suzuki cried as he ran forward, breaking the small intimate moment as he caught up to where the two adults sat on the ash-covered lawn and the small boy threw his arms around her neck, not at all worried if anyone saw him acting like a complete baby. 

Sanosuke had to smile as he released his grip around Megumi's waist and allowed their son his share of celebration. 

"Mommy, I was so scared, Mommy! I didn't know what happened to you and Uncle Kenshin said you were okay but I didn't believe him 'cause you wouldn't wake up and I kept calling you and calling you... and... and... you still wouldn't...!"

Megumi smiled as well, tears forming in the outer corners of her eyes as she pulled her son into her arms, ignoring the blunt and heavy ache that cramped up her muscles that still weren't quite used to being moved again. She was just so glad that she got to see him again, the pain no longer mattered. 

"I know, Angel, I know," she whispered to him as he finally stopped in his jabbering to just simply hug his mother. Instantly at ease, Megumi planted a kiss atop her son's head and lightly grazed his dark bangs out of his reddened eyes as she brought him back into her arms. "I'm so glad you're okay, Suzuki, I'm so so glad... Oh, thank God, you're alright..."

"It was really scary, Mommy! I didn't know what was wrong and I... I didn't know what to do..!" Suzuki tried again, but was cut off by his strangled sobs that absolutely melted Megumi's heart. It was all she could do but hug him tighter. 

"Mommy's going to be just fine now, baby. There's no need to be scared anymore, alright? Hm?" Her smile only grew as she felt his vigorous nodding against her shoulder, already damp with his tears, and she gently patted his back as if he were a baby once more in need of a goodnight kiss to calm his fears of monsters under his bed. He had been so brave that day, it startled her that he was only five. Just the thought of what great kind of a man he would grow up to be made her feel so warm inside. Her little angel was growing up. "I am so proud of you, Suzuki..."

Suzuki's grip around his mother only tightened at her words. She was proud of him. Even after all he had so horribly failed her at, she was still proud of him. In his own way, he had taken part in the saving of his mother, but Suzuki knew who deserved the most credit. He knew who he had dragged over to the clinic for help, he knew who had really saved her.

Slowly, Suzuki's head came up, his cheeks soaked from his tears, and he finally turned away from Megumi and met his father's steady gaze. In those innocent eyes, once filled with regret and sorrow only minutes ago, glowed happiness and cheer. Without even a moment's notice, Suzuki flung himself into Sanosuke's open arms, startling him more than any words ever could, and his son just... cried; cried like the little boy he was, but at the same time, it mirrored the maturity and courage his father had seen earlier that day.

Letting his shock slip past, Sano smiled down at the mini-him with his arms around his neck and gently hugged his son back with all the sincerity he had ever yearned for himself from his own father. It was almost as if Suzuki knew he was his father, even though no one had ever really straight out told him. His hug was more than just something as simple as a 'thank you,' it was an acceptance of who Sanosuke really was. The only thing missing was his official title.

"Hey... it's okay now. There's no reason to cry anymore," Sanosuke soothed as he gave the boy a gentle squeeze, "Sh... it's okay... everything's gonna be okay..." Suzuki nodded against the older man's shoulder, still unable to speak through the small cries that escaped instead, but Sanosuke received his message loud and clear.

"Thank you..." Suzuki choked out between sobs, "Thank you so much..." 

"Suzuki, listen me, alright?" Sanosuke instructed and he waited for the boy to look up before he resumed speaking as his new occupation as a teacher, a parent, and a friend, "I am always gonna be here for you. Always." 

In the distance, Kenshin, Kaoru, and Yahiko gradually made their way across the graying lawn, careful on the areas where the windows had shattered and broken on the floor, and they all kneeled down beside the happy family with expressions that looked neither expectant or shocked. Kaoru gently touched Megumi's hand, pulling her attention away from the satisfyingly sweet picture of Sanosuke and her son and the younger woman's tears formed again.

"We're glad you're okay, Megumi," Kaoru said, so low that Megumi's readjusting senses barely caught her words and she found herself smiling at her friends before her, glad as well.

"So am I," Megumi replied and she turned as she felt Sanosuke gently take hold of her left hand before clasping it in his own.

"For a moment there, we thought we lost you," Sanosuke whispered softly, one arm still supporting his son against his weight as he leaned forward and brushed a stray strand of her hair behind her ear, "I thought I lost you..."

"For a moment there, you did," Megumi said in return and she turned back to face her friends, now all closely gathered by her side, just the way it always should have been, "but my place was here... with the people I love most."

"You mean with me and Daddy, right Mommy?" Suzuki asked, his tears long gone and evaporated into the breeze, and she saw them travel instead to Sanosuke's eyes at the mention of the most important name he had ever inherited. 

'Daddy.' It was with that one simple word that Sanosuke knew he had been given a great gift. He was finally home...

"Yes, Suzuki. With you," Megumi answered, her heart and soul finally warm again and wholly complete as she looked from son's to father's identical smiling faces, "and Daddy..."

  
  


A/N: So, how did I do with the ending? Too sappy? That's what I thought at first but then again, if YOU lost YOUR true love, wouldn't you act the same way? Oh and also, this isn't the last chapter of the story. I bet there's a few people still wondering what happened to Tetsu/Kurotara. Remember him? Mean guy, about yay high, has one black and one white eye? Yeah, because of all the excitement of tying the plot together, he was left out after the fire. The real ending is the epilogue so that'll be up pretty soon. Also, the epilogue might, I repeat, MIGHT, have a little sneak peek at the sequel I MIGHT write so look out for that too. Sequel, good idea? Bad idea? Lemme know, okay? 


	15. A Promise of the Coming Day

Chapter 14:

"A Promise of the Coming Day"  
  


Two weeks. It had been two weeks of constant spoiling, laughter, and joy. Each day had proved to have bested the last and the colors of Megumi's heart continued to grow brighter with renewed love and hope. At the same time, Suzuki had developed a good knack for gagging noises at the sometimes relentless displays of affection his parents gave to each other throughout the day, but he learned to brush it off and move on to singing embarrassing love songs to Yahiko and Tsubame instead. Nights had been spent in the company of their friends, but in the end, simmered down to Megumi, Sano, and their son going home as a family. 

Mornings were something that Megumi looked forward to as it brought the reality back from slumber and satisfied the craving for what was and would always be there. Megumi found it easy to leave her dreams behind; as pleasant as they were, they did nothing when compared to waking up to reality. At times she even refused to sleep, not wanting to close her tired eyes and miss even a split second of being in Sanosuke's presence. 

For the first week since the clinic's fire, Sanosuke simply denied making love to her because her wounds were still fresh and new, but even so, there were times when she knew he wanted to, badly, but deliberately held back from his desire to quicken the pace of her healing injuries. It was on the seventh day that he finally gave in after seeing that her wounds had made progress and the rest of the day was spent doing nothing else. The days that followed were nothing short of bliss, filled with all and every kind of loving action and word, and always ended with the two wrapped up in each other's arms.

Her lashes fluttering at first, Megumi sleepily cracked open one cinnamon brown eye to take a look at her current surroundings, her head swimming with memories from the night before that had exhausted her to no end. Her body felt a bit sore in places, but she was relaxed nonetheless. Sanosuke's arm lay draped over the sheets of their bed, stretched out under her head, his other arm was found closer to her body, one hand carefully cupping one of her milky white breasts. A small smile marched across Megumi's lips as she watched him stir in his sleep and he unconsciously ran a few lazy fingers down the smooth skin of her leg that she had carelessly thrown over his thigh. 

This was one of the things she liked best about mornings: waking up to find yet another creative position they had gotten themselves into overnight. This one seemed to be much more comfortable than the one she had woken up to the morning before when she had found herself sprawled across the tatami mat with her back practically up against the wall. Still half-asleep, Sanosuke leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to her's, awake at last and ready to start another day. Yes, this was a much more comfortable position than the morning before...

"How long have you been up?" he asked in a low voice against her lips and he slowly moved down to nuzzle the crook of her neck, flicking his tongue out to trace down the firm line of her throat that practically screamed to him for attention.

"Forever," Megumi lied, shutting her eyes as he closed the distance between them and continued his kisses down to the deep hollow beside her collarbone, "I was wondering when you were going to wake up... We need to get ready to go soon, remember?"

"Mm hm..." was his diverted reply, the answer Megumi knew as the 'I'm-not-really-listening' response, and she smiled as he finally let her words sink in and stopped in his lip adventuring across her shoulders to look up at her face. He blinked once. Twice. Then his eyes closed. "Do we have to?"

"You don't have to go if you don't want to. I can just go by myself." This reasoning earned her an immediate eyebrow raise that clearly read that he would rather choke on his fishbone rather than let her go anywhere unattended. Megumi laughed. "So you're coming with me then?" she concluded, her smile growing wider as he let out a defeated sigh that was pretty much the equivalent to, 'You win' and she leaned forward and kissed his cheek, "Good."

However, the mischievous look in his eyes that immediately followed the kiss was not caught so quickly by Megumi as she tried to leave the warm place of his arms, only to get startled and instantly pulled back down under the covers. 

Turning her back to face him, Sanosuke captured her lips in a passionate kiss, his hands grasping her by her slim hips, and he eased her mouth open to allow his tongue access inside to play with her's. Megumi found it all too simple to give in to his unspoken demand and she sighed, allowing his hands to roam over the luscious curves of her body that he had come to know so well, nibbling lightly on anything that looked sweet enough to taste with his tongue. Slowly, he worked a rhythm with his fingers as he caressed the fullness of her breasts, memorizing the way they spilled into his hands, and he lightly pinched at their stiff peaks until he heard the soft moan he loved to hear escape from her only seconds later. 

Pausing, Sanosuke pulled away for a moment to listen for any signs that their son was awake in his room down the hall, and a smile crossed over his lips as Megumi let out an impatient whimper for him to continue what he had started, arching her body toward his for more of his addictive touches that could never end at just that. Knowing that there would be no unexpected interruptions, his attention instantly swung back to her and he slyly ran his expert tongue over her mouth, already pink and swollen from his kisses. Effortlessly, Sanosuke pulled her up against him, their moored bodies aching with the same hot desire flaming within and displaying itself outside in his deep brown eyes as he slanted them, watching as Megumi clung to him, her lips slightly parted in the shape of a full moon.

"Sano..." Megumi breathed, her voice half-whispered and half-panted, torn between trying to speak and trying to gain control over the rising pleasure that he induced on her body, "We... should... get... up..."

But her half-hearted requests slipped past as nothing in his ears and Sanosuke continued in his sensual exploring of her body, skillfully caressing her thighs and he slid them apart, slipping his fingers into her already damp and throbbing core. Megumi sprang forward as his passion devoured her, claimed her, and she dug her nails into the hard muscles of his shoulder blades, her teeth leaving ecstatic love bites down the side of his neck. Sanosuke closed his eyes with a small whisper of her name. 

"One minute..." Sanosuke murmured softly into her ear and he held onto her waist as she threw her head back against the pillows, writhing underneath him as he worked her with his fingers, holding her, loving her, and she absolutely soared. A light gasp flared through her open mouth as his thumb found the sensitive bud of her sex and gently stroked it until the only thing Megumi could think of was him. Him touching her, him kissing her, him feeling her, him having her... The faint sound of her sobbing voice broke off into blunt breaths, carrying itself throughout the entire room before it finally reached them again and sizzled the erotic fire burning within. But Megumi's second cry only moments later, was tenderly muted by Sanosuke's loving kiss as he moved over her once more and from there, everything seemed no longer important...  
  


  
  


And so one minute passed and so did another and another until finally, close to about half an hour later, Megumi was able to get Sanosuke out of bed and dressed to go out. But it seemed he was in need of another encouraging "push" to follow through with the plan as she watched him scowl at the entrance way of the police station they were about to enter. 

The only reason Sanosuke had complained about coming was the fact that they would have to speak with a certain person inside and that did not make him a happy camper. He could already feel the unsettled rage building inside of him, bubbling to a break point in his veins as he took his first few steps inside the door with Megumi at his side. Just the thought of being anywhere near that specific person made his hands tighten into fists, something Megumi did not let go unnoticed.

"It won't take very long," Megumi consoled him as she comfortingly placed a hand on his, the pads of her fingers gently brushing against his tanned skin, and she felt his tensed muscles relax under her touch, "you think you can avoid getting yourself into trouble?"

"I can't promise you I won't," Sanosuke answered honestly, but at the incredulous look she gave him, he flashed her his usual lop-sided grin, "but I'll see what I can do."

"Well, well, well, it seems you really didn't fall off the face of the earth... Hm, that's too bad. I was starting to think you two weren't going to show up,"a deep voice interrupted, the declaration soon followed by a faint ring of smoke escaping the shadowy corner in which the owner stood in. Sanosuke prepared himself for the worst as Hajime Saito finally stepped out of the darkened room and approached them with narrowed golden eyes that gleamed like two fireflies in the middle of a starless night. "I have other business to attend to other than this that probably concerns the safety of an entire city so it just wastes all of our time, mainly mine, if you keep getting yourselves lost."

'Why that...!' Sanosuke opened his mouth to give out a few choice words that aren't exactly R-rated at the golden-eyed wolf, but Megumi spoke before he could, cutting him off before he could agitate the already annoyed police chief. She wanted to get out of there as much as he did, but starting up an argument wasn't going to help things.

"We didn't mean to be late, we just had to drop off Suzuki at the dojo first," Megumi explained and she watched as Saito's gaze fell from it's place in glaring at Sano to her smaller form beside him. His criticizing stare lingered over her for a moment, as if searching her face for any falseness in her answer. Then his eyebrow rose up, indicating that he knew there was more reason for the delay; Megumi inwardly groaned, finally understanding why Sanosuke found the man so frustrating. "And... everything else is none of your business," she added with a flip of her hair and she narrowed her eyes as a smirk curved the very end of Saito's mouth.

"I see..."

"Look, Saito, I don't wanna be here any longer than I have to so let's just get this over with," Sanosuke growled, "you know what we came here for so quit stalling already and tell us where he is."

Silent, the police chief drew in a slow breath from his cigarette, lengthening the drag merely to spite Sanosuke even more, which it did, before he finally answered in a voice that showed he really could care less. "Down the hall to the very end. Right side in cell 43."

"Alright. Come on, Fox, let's go," Sanosuke said and his feet carried him off in the direction indicated; they came to a screeching halt though when he felt a firm hand on his arm, holding him in place. Confused, he turned back to face her. "Megumi?"

"Sano, I think I should do this alone," Megumi stated simply. It wasn't that she didn't want him there; she did, but this was something she knew she had to confront by herself. When it came down to this, she would always be on her own. Her gaze steadied, pleading with him to let her go, and her grip on his arm slowly loosened as her hand slid down to take hold of his. "It's something only I can do." 

Frowning, Sanosuke opened his mouth to protest for the second time that day. He couldn't let her do that. It wouldn't be right. If something happened to her, if anything happened to her, it would be because he was stupid enough to let her out of his sight. He had promised himself that faithful day he had pulled her from the fire that he would never, ever, lose her again and this request that she was now asking of him went completely against that promise. But Sanosuke found that it was hard to say no to her as he felt her hand in his tighten it's grip, a reassurance of his anxiety. Again, he was determined to put his foot down and tell her he would follow her and protect her tot he very ends of Hell itself, but of course, Megumi didn't earn the nickname Fox Lady for nothing. It was the famous 'You-know-you-love-me-enough-to-give-me-anything' pout that snapped the last string of his strength and accepting defeat, Sanosuke nodded his head in understanding and Megumi gave him a slow smile. 

"Thank you."

Grateful, her hand slowly dropped from it's place in his, and reaching up with a slender hand, Megumi playfully tugged on the end of his red bandana which he had allowed her to put on him earlier that morning. Smiling, Megumi sighed, reading his thoughts of worry as if he had them written all over his forehead for the entire world to see, and she gave him a look that told him he should really be worrying about behaving while she was away. It was a look that read something along the lines of, 'Try not to kill each other while I'm gone.' 

Sanosuke smiled and nodded to assure her he would do his best and he chucked her chin so she could look him in the eye. His gaze before held a hint of playfulness, but it had quickly vanished as he met her now with serious brown eyes and told her he would wait where he was if she needed anything. Megumi nodded and quickly kissed his lips once more before she finally turned on her heel and left the two enemies alone, her feet leading her straight towards the police station's row of prison cells.  
  


Silence filled the room as Megumi's footsteps grew faint in the distance and Sanosuke held his breath, waiting for the Ass of Mibu to make his move and generally push him to break his promise to Megumi to avoid throwing a good punch at his ugly face. Moments passed and still there was nothing. Curiosity filtered through him as the quiet air remained still for a while longer, then relief passed over his being as he realized that maybe Saito had gotten bored of chopping up his ego. That is, until the man finally decided to open up his big mouth.

"Took a while to get out of bed, huh?" Saito asked and an evil smirk crossed over his lips, one that Sanosuke easily caught from the corner of his eye as he focused his stare on the hall Megumi had disappeared to, trying to convince himself that kicking the man somewhere vital was not worth the energy. With his narrow eyes closed, Saito carelessly dropped his cigarette down onto the floor and crunched it down with his foot. "Your pants are inside-out, moron."

"Shut the hell up, Saito."  
  


  
  


The long corridor seemed to stretch out far beyond Megumi's line of sight, or maybe it just seemed that way because of what she dreaded to find at the very end. The faint echo of her feet meeting the hardwood floors of the police station matched the beat of her pounding heart. But her rib cage however, didn't feel like it would be able to barricade the vigorous hammering for much longer; Megumi was afraid she would burst with her jumbled emotions and leave them scattered all over the police station walls. Her heart drummed so loud in her chest Megumi was sure the entire city of Tokyo could hear it's violent rhythm. 

It had been two weeks of happiness and love since she had felt this feeling of paranoia jabbing at her insides, two weeks spent with her family and friends as they helped mend her physical injuries and the one that lay deep within her heart. Now her outside bruises were fading and the pain in her heart was lessening more and more each day, but the heavy ache of her conscious still weighed down on her mind and kept her from enjoying her new life to it's fullest potential. 

She had to let go of a part of her that had been left behind to be buried and forgotten, but had somehow survived. She was meant to be buried and forgotten. Megumi knew that to love Sanosuke completely, to live her life like never before, to truly be happy, she had to first face the fear and responsibility she owed to one particular person.

"Tetsu," Megumi said aloud as she finally reached the end of the suspiciously long hallway of occupied prison cells and she turned and looked in the tiny square box that held him inside. 

She didn't know who she had really spoken to just then, maybe herself or maybe him; she was never really sure. But she was puzzled that the sound of her voice startled him out of his quiet thoughts and stiffened his back, which was to her. Holding her breath in the bottom of her throat, Megumi waited for what seemed to be a lifetime for him to turn.

She gasped when she saw his face. Honestly, she had had no idea what to expect when she came to see him, she had tried to prepare herself for endless threats to her life, she had readied herself with defenses if he tried for her throat... but Megumi hadn't prepared herself for the look she saw in his eyes as he met hers again, for it was enough to shock her speechless. 

He looked lost, indifferent, like a red leaf singled out among a forest of green in the early months of springtime. His eyes held the look of sorrow. They were blood-shot, red and wide, pleading and pathetic. Her heart clenched in her chest as his stare came to hers and held it for a long moment, as if staring through her bones and flesh and peeking into her very soul. He looked like he had visited hell and back and she could imagine that that was also how he felt.

Megumi saw no light in those eyes, no light on his entire face, and it wasn't because of the dim shadows that surrounded him on all sides. She watched Tetsu's hands shake roughly in his lap, quivering like the tail of an angry rattlesnake that had just encountered a hunter near it's home. He no longer held that piercing aspect of his black and white eyes that had once frightened her enough to still all movement. His mouth was now set in a grim line, neither sneering nor smiling as she had grown so used to, but stayed expressionless. He was a different man than the one that had almost killed her two weeks ago.

"Tetsu?" she repeated, this time as a question to check if she had really come to the right cell and she watched him as his face remained still and unmoved, as if he didn't understand who she was. Megumi tried again. "Kurotara? Do you... do you know who I am?"

Tetsu blinked. Then, slowly, his chin dropped low in a small nod-like motion and he brought it back up so he could stare at her again with the same blank eyes.

"Do you know why I'm here?" Megumi asked him, her own voice startling her as she heard the quiver in her whisper, and watched him slowly shake his head from left to right. She cleared her throat. "I came here... to talk to you about Satomi..."

This gained a reaction from him. It surprised her beyond belief when he rose from his seat and practically ran to the wooden bars of his caged room, his hands desperately gripping them to the point that she thought his fingers would begin to bleed and blister. His eyes were wide open now, expectant and awake, waiting for her to continue. But her lips refused to move because in the depths of Kurotara's eyes, Megumi could swear she saw the woman's image that she spoke of; her long brown hair blowing freely in the wind as she stood atop the familiar grassy hill where Megumi had first encountered her. 

Satomi's image smiled at her through Kurotara's eyes, beautiful and exquisite. Like a stone statue of a goddess, her smile illuminated and far surpassed anything magical Megumi had ever seen in her life; it was just how she remembered. The picture brought chills to Megumi's spine, it startled her, but it held her in place, staring into the world that was trapped in his weary sight. It was the black and white world of Kurotara's eyes.

But the spell was broken as Kurotara blinked at last, releasing Satomi's grip on Megumi's soul, and she violently shook herself to rid the eerie thought she felt of the other woman's aura in the room. Kurotara swallowed, his throat tightening slightly as his lips began to move and he spoke his first words to her since the day he had tried to burn her alive.

"She was... she was... Satomi was my life," he whispered and his voice shook as he carefully reached out, his hands slipping through the opening between the wooden bars of his cell, and he clasped her joined hands in his own, "I couldn't live without her..." It shocked Megumi that she didn't draw away from his touch, that she wasn't completely disgusted by his closeness; instead, she found herself leaning closer to hear him. "There was so much... so much love, but it was never enough... She left me, Megumi, she left me here all alone. She left and she didn't come back... I stayed and I waited. I waited so long for her... Don't you see? She has come back to me. She has come back to me at last..."

The pace of Megumi's heart quickened as she listened to him speak, his own heart pumping loudly in his chest, but it stood out entirely visible on his sleeve, ready to be torn off and thrown aside. She hardly understood a word he was saying, but at the same time, he spoke to her in a way that she had never heard before and it intrigued her brain. Maybe he was on the break of insanity, or maybe he was merely clinging to a dream that would never be fulfilled, or maybe it was something else Megumi didn't quite understand; either way, she knew that above all else, every voice deserved a lent ear. He needed someone to listen to him mourn and confess, to hear him speak out what had been haunting him for too many years.

"Satomi is with me at last," he said again, his grip on her clasped hands tightening with the intensity of his words, "She has... returned to me. We are together again. We are one. And it is because of you. She has come back because of you..." 

Soon after those words escaped his lips, Kurotara's mouth slowly turned up into a smile, one that Megumi had never seen on his face before that very moment, and the light glaze of pain over his eyes slowly withered away until it completely disappeared. His hands loosened around hers, slowly and gingerly, careful with her for he knew he had inflicted pain on her so harshly only days ago. 

He owed so much to her, so many things that he could never possibly repay. Kurotara knew that he could never apologize to her for she would never accept it. There was simply no possible way for anyone to ever try and say sorry for attempted murder and the worst deceit. Forgiveness was beyond what he had done to her. It had been the ultimate betrayal. Megumi had trusted him and he had ripped that trust apart into tiny bits and pieces and strewn them along the dirtied floor. He had broken her. But Kurotara could see in her eyes that she was healing, he could see the light in her cinnamon pupils, the face of the man she loved. Sanosuke was in her eyes, as Satomi was in his. They were the cures for Megumi's and his aching and yearning hearts.

The day he had left Megumi in the clinic to burn, Kurotara had run for his life. He had no idea why at the time, he thought that it was in fear of facing the revenge Sanosuke would no doubt bring upon him, but Kurotara found later that he was running away for a different reason. He had been running from himself. He was trying to escape the conscious part of him that had finally awakened from the dream he had conjured up over the many years since Satomi's death and it was now rising from its long slumber. For once in the eight years of having lived without her, he had realized that Tetsu scared him, the man he had created out of the pure hatred that took over his body; he absolutely frightened himself. He began to see the blood stains on his hands, the ones that remained un-washable and stained. He had practically bathed in the screams of those lives that he had stolen so long ago and his entire body radiated with the soul of a demon; the distinct smell of blood flowed straight to his brain.

'Murderer...' the wind seemed to whisper.

'Murderer...' was the faraway bird's call.

'Murderer...' his own voice chanted over and over in his head until he could hear nothing else.

His mind had betrayed him. It had gone completely berserk, obsessed with plaguing him with wild images of the deaths he had seen and done, forcing his eyes to see nothing but red. The world seemed to have cursed him, bringing rain down upon him harshly from the clouds above, and the thunder bellowed out his name in agonizing threats and screams. Kurotara had taken off again in sheer terror, his feet moving against the ground, splattering the large puddles of the streets onto his clothes in deep crimson colors. He had left all pieces of his sanity behind at the clinic of yet another sacrilege and the lost souls he had once thrown into darkness were beginning to reach out with bloodied hands to take him down to hell. They were in every shadow, they spoke only in deep moans of pain, and they all wanted him dead.

It was then that she came to him, glowing and radiant, with the smile he had always loved to see. The screams of death left him with her presence, the vengeful ghosts returning back to the graves from which they had risen, and the darkness had sailed off into the distant forests. Whether it was a dream or she had visited him in spirit, Satomi returned to him.

He had fallen onto his knees in tears, sobbing, screaming, swearing for all that he was worth. Kurotara screamed to know why. Why was she hurting him? Why did she leave him? Why did she abandon him and leave him there to die? His cries had carried to her at last, they had finally reached the ears they were meant to enter, and his pent up hate and love for her poured out of his mouth in incoherent words and sobs until he could speak no more. He had trembled in her presence, under her watchful eyes that pierced through him like a dull knife. Her silence ripped at his heart. Kurotara shuddered at how close she was to him, and he remembered reaching out with his hands to pull her to his body and hold her in his arms once more.

But his fingers had grabbed onto nothing but air, cold and icy air. Her image had simply remained standing before him, smiling all the while, as if torturing him, tempting him with the sight of what he could not have. Yet as he slunk back from her indifference, she had gone to him with longing eyes, kneeling down onto the ground in front of his down cast face. Feeling her presence again, Kurotara had anxiously looked up from his gaze on the dirt floor to find her arms outstretched in welcome. They softly encircled him, shielding his wounded soul. Satomi held him to her body like a mother would to her child, protecting him from the darkness and keeping away the curse of the world, and softly she whispered to him her unrequited love and faith, "I did not leave you, Kurotara. I never left you..."

  
  


Tears sprang up to the rims of Megumi's eyes all too suddenly. It was unexpected, it was unnecessary, but she cried. She had seen it, Megumi had seen it all, the images and sights he had seen that day, they had each entered her mind like drops of blue ocean crashing upon the rocks underneath a sparkling waterfall. Satomi had truly come back to him, Megumi could see it glowing behind the colors in his eyes that held hers like the grasp he had on her hands. 

The next thing Kurotara did brought rushed tears down Megumi's cheeks, spilling over the rims of her eyes and over the small hill of curled lashes, and she desperately choked back a sob as he carefully lifted her right hand up to his lips and kissed it. The kissed flesh of her hand felt warm, renewed, fresh. It made way for the oncoming ragged breaths of her lungs and the weak feeling in her heart as she finally heard his unspoken words.

Amazing grace...

"Don't cry, Megumi," he said softly through his smiling lips, his hand reaching up slowly to gently wipe away the cold tears that slipped onto her porcelain cheeks that he had once enjoyed to see falling with her pain, "Please don't cry... I have hurt you enough already. But no more, I will do it no more..." And through the bars, Kurotara brought himself forward, tilting her face down, and sweetly planted a kiss on the top of her head, blessing her with his joy and congratulating her on her own. 

How sweet the sound...

"One day, Sweetheart," Kurotara whispered into her ear, "one day, black and white will do nothing to us, it will be nothing to us. Soon the darkness will disappear and fade and we will be able to see past it all. Just wait... One day, the black and white veil will be lifted from our eyes and we will finally see... I promise you that, Megumi, I promise you." 

That saved a wretch like me...

"Don't..." Megumi quietly pleaded with him, her head bent low against the bars so that her face was hidden from his sight in hopes of blocking out what she already knew he was really trying to say, "Please don't..." Silence fell upon her as she felt his finger move to underneath her chin, lifting it so his eyes met hers, and he smiled. "Tetsu... Kurotara... Listen to me, please. You can repent for your sins. You can. You can start over like I have. You can gain a new life and..."

I once was lost...

But Kurotara wouldn't let her finish. Carefully, he put a finger to her lips, quieting her voice with the gentleness in his touch, and he slowly shook his head, no. Sadly, he caressed her tear stained cheek with his thumb, his eyes and lips smiling down at her through his caged home, his prison, his sanctuary.

But now, am found... 

"A new life is not something I can have. It is not something I want. Not without her... You understand that, don't you?" Kurotara asked her, his fingers slowly combing through the dark strands of her hair, easing out the tangles that one could only imagine were there, "You came back to your love because you understood that. This is where it ends, Megumi, this is how it must be."

Was blind but now I see... 

"Wait for it, Sweetheart, wait for the light..."

And with those last words said, Kurotara's hand fell from it's place resting on her cheek, the movements of his fingers halting stiffly in the air that had all so suddenly seemed to be swallowing him whole. His eyes held onto her's, capturing them once more in the depths of their black and white worlds, but they were unfocused; it looked as if they saw past her at something completely unreachable to the mortal eye. And slowly, swirling gyres appeared in the galaxy of his pupils, expanding wider and wider to the very ends of the black and white colors in his irises until at last the spinning ceased and slowly shifted into a stone gray. The clouds of his eyes vanished and instead in their place, silver had taken over his sight, and black and white were no more. 

Megumi watched in stunned silence as Kurotara's body slumped against the thick wooden bars that had caged him like an animal, like an insignificant thing. Rigid, his form slid down the long barriers of his barred room and his eyes closed as he sunk to his knees to the ground, his hands settled peacefully in his lap as if in prayer. 

A tiny sob climbed it's way up Megumi's throat as his limp figure plunged down to the hard prison floor, creating a loud thud as man flesh met concrete stone. Dust particles sifted through the musty air around him from the impact with wide spread wings, gliding along the strange breeze of the warm day before eventually scurrying out the only window he had in the top right of his lonely refuge. 

This was the man that had threatened her life, her son's, her friends', her love's. This was the man that had taken advantage of her body, broken her spirit, and bloodied her hands with his own cruel hatred. This was the man that had been the sole purpose she and Sanosuke had been separated. But she could not hate him, not as he was now. Megumi found that she couldn't hate a dead man. 

Her eyes overlooked his body, from the long length of his legs to the lightly tightened fists of his hands to the smile that still lay plastered on his peaceful face. In his last days, he had claimed the look of innocence, he had gained happiness in the dreams he had of Satomi's arrival home, and he had found his way out of his own hell in the open arms of Death. For years, his loss had endlessly haunted him through the light and dark of day and now his nightmares and cries had been heard, his questions answered. Kurotara had finally found peace. 

Choking on her own saliva, Megumi let out the breath she had held deep in her throat as her tears fell onto the ready and waiting floor. Her right hand, the one he had kissed, grasped tightly, desperately, at the kimono cloth covering her fast beating heart as she tried to keep the horrid anguish from reaching it's attempted destination inside her rib cage.

"Megumi?" Sanosuke's voice came from behind her, his eyes soft with concern as he watched her body shudder with her hushed breath, and his hands placed themselves gently on her shaking shoulders, "What is it?"

"Sano..." was the only thing that had been allowed to leave her lips as she anxiously turned into his caring embrace and openly cried into his chest to let out the flood of her tears, flowing faster than the fishing rivers and harder than the waves of the worst storms.

Immediately, Sanosuke's arms wrapped themselves around her racking form, holding onto her as if he never meant to let her go, and his grip only tightened as his eyes fell on the dead body of the man in the cell. 

Kurotara Kajima. Tetsu. The man he thought deserved to have his heart ripped out and thrown in the dirt. The sight of his corpse had once been the one thing Sanosuke had wanted most in the world to see, but somehow now, he could not bear to look.

"O... opium..." Megumi's voice shuddered through her cries and Sanosuke felt her hands tightly grasp at the open part of his gi, clinging to him as if she would fall to her own death if she did not, "He... he died from opium..."

"Megumi, how do you know that he..." his voice trailed off, his hold on her tightening as she shakily pointed a finger to something in Kurotara's hand. It was then that Sanosuke forced himself to look back at the body before him and with his right hand gently smoothing the skin of her back, he cradled her closer at the sight of the unmistakable triangular packet that lay open in Kurotara's palm. The powder was all gone. 

Megumi's tears fell like the rain and her hands held Sanosuke tightly around the bandages surrounding his waist so her weakened knees wouldn't give way underneath her. One by one, Megumi's sobs pursued in their tearing at his heart and Sanosuke carefully lowered his lips to her forehead, trying his best to comfort her with his love. 

She knew she should have realized it sooner. She knew she should've realized it from the moment she had first seen his eyes. She had seen the look all too much first hand and she had seen that look every time she had been forced to make another packet of the lethal drug. It was as if she had used the wretched powder herself as it slowly killed her inside day by day until at last she was saved. Opium had never caused it's prey to scream out in pain, but it was the cries of the victim's loved ones left behind that echoed through the night and could be heard with each heavy step every man or woman laid down on Tokyo's paths. 

One day, Kurotara had told her, the thick veils that blinded their hearts would be lifted from their eyes and they would finally be able to see. They would finally be able to look past the black and white of hunger, pain, greed, and evil. One day he had said it would come, but she had not known that he had meant today.

"Don't cry, Megumi..." Sanosuke soothed, his hand cradled gently at the back of her neck as he traced his long fingers over her tensed muscles, coaxing her to calm her tears, "It's over, love... it's finally over..."

Megumi's eyes slowly came to a close at his words and she placed her head down onto his welcoming shoulder, her body's vigorous shaking decreasing at last as his light massages soothed her body.

"He promised me..." she whispered into Sanosuke's chest, "he promised me today..."

And as the two stood together in the dim light of the prisoners' hall, the sun stretched out it's shining fingers and peeked over the tall vast mountain tops and through the sky length of cotton clouds. The change opened Megumi's eyes and they looked about her in wonder, like a newborn child in it's first moments on Earth, curious and naive. 

Holding each other in the tight embrace of love and hope, Megumi and Sanosuke both looked up and watched as the tiny window above the mud covered walls of Kurotara's cell let the light shine through it's iron bars and glimmer down upon their souls. Neither bothered to shield their eyes as the light graced them with a shower of precious gold and pushed back the darkened veil of shadows to a world where it could never return.  
  
  
  


A/N: AHHH! IT'S OVER! I had lots of fun writing this fic and it was great reading reviews from everybody! Thanks so much to all of you that read! It was truly an inspiration to write more when ppl cheered me on. Haha. Newhoo... I'm still not sure about this sequel thing I was gonna do cuz I think I have terrorized Meg and them way too much already! Plus, it wouldn't work that great as a comedy. *sigh* I'll see though. I guess it depends on if I get a certain amount of ppl saying it's a good idea. I dunno. It's up to you! So thanks again and hope to hear from you all soon! P.S. about the "Amazing Grace" song and the little lemony scene in the beginning... hehe I just couldn't help myself! ^^


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